


Bugs, Run!

by steeleye



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Duty, Friendship, Gen, Honour, military sci-fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-26 05:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first story in an occasional and completely new original military sci-fi series. When she’d joined the army, Astrid had imagined desperate battles against the inhabitants of strange new worlds; okay she’d got the ‘strange new worlds’ (she supposed that Yanlor counted as ‘strange’). But, desperate battles? Not so much and as for ‘inhabitants’; so far the only really big life forms she’d seen were the odd insect-like ‘Bugs’ and they appeared to be totally harmless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Bugs, Run!

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I actually thought up everything! However, I did take some ideas from other people’s work, so if you recognise something as belonging to someone else I’m not claiming ownership of it. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious English-English which is different to American-English.

 **Timeline:** Some time in the future.

 **Words:** Eight Chapters of 3000+ words.

 **Warnings:** Look out for them bugs!

 **Summary:** The first story in an occasional and completely new original military sci-fi series. When she’d joined the army, Astrid had imagined desperate battles against the inhabitants of strange new worlds; okay she’d got the ‘strange new worlds’ (she supposed that Yanlor counted as ‘strange’). But, desperate battles? Not so much and as for ‘inhabitants’; so far the only really big life forms she’d seen were the odd insect-like ‘Bugs’ and they appeared to be totally harmless.

0=0=0=0

**Patrol Base Tedium, Northern Continent, BL-518-4 (Yanlor).**

“That should do it,” Astrid scanned the engine compartment of the truck she’d been working on before making sure she’d not left any tools lying around, “okay, crank her up!” she called to her companion who was sitting in the driver’s cab.

Wiping her hands on a piece of rag, Lance Corporal Astrid Hall listened to the engine as it burst into life. Nodding her head slowly she congratulated herself on a job well done; the engine on Two-three-seven had been running ‘rough’ and not supplying sufficient power to the generator that ran the electric motors in the wheel hubs. It’d taken her a couple of hours to track down the fault but now it sounded like she’d got it fixed.

“Try putting it on load,” Astrid called to her friend Judy, who was sitting behind the steering wheel.

Listening to the tone of the engine change as it was connected up to the generator, Astrid nodded her head once again and smiled. Throwing the rag to one side, she closed the hood and then jumped down from the fender where she’d been standing as she’d worked on the engine. Walking around to the cab she looked up at Judy through the open cab door.

“Try taking her for a spin around camp,” Astrid called over the noise made by two-three-seven's diesel engine.

Nodding her head Private Judy Luke pulled her door closed, put the truck into drive and drove off across the soft sand of the patrol base. After watching for a minute or two as the truck picked up speed, Astrid turned and collected her tools together and put them neatly back in her tool box, she gave a little sad sigh as she did so. Being little more than a glorified mechanic wasn’t what she’d imagined when she’d joined the army just before her eighteenth birthday. Then she’d imagined desperate battles against the inhabitants of strange new worlds; okay she’d got the ‘strange new worlds’ (she supposed that Yanlor counted as ‘strange’). But, desperate battles? Not so much and as for ‘inhabitants’; so far the only really big life forms she’d seen were the odd insect-like ‘Bugs’ that roamed the planet’s wide grasslands in small herds.

Watching as the dust rose from the wheels of Judy’s truck, Astrid pushed her disappointment at the monotony of her military career to one side. However boring Yanlor was it was better than Riverdale, the town she’s grown up in on Terra and being a driver-mechanic was a hundred times better than being a ‘waitress’ in a night club. Smiling a little as she watched Judy throw the truck about on the low ripples of sandy grass covered soil that passed for ridgelines in these parts, Astrid turned away to go back to the maintenance bay, dump her tools and head for the showers. It was nearly the end of the working day anyway so she thought she might as well take an early finish. Turning she saw her platoon sergeant, Emma Grimshaw heading towards her with a knowing smirk on her face.

“Damn-it-all,” Astrid sighed, “what the freck does she want?”

“Astrid!” Grimshaw called as she got closer, “Gotta job for you.”

“What now, Sarge?” Astrid complained, her hopes for an early shower, dinner and a few beers in ‘The Club’ began to recede into the distance.

“No tomorrow,” Grimshaw came to a halt in front of Astrid and looked down at her; Grimshaw was nearly six-foot tall as opposed to Astrid’s five-foot-six.

“Oh,” Astrid breathed a sigh of relief, “so, what’s up Sarge?”

“We’ve lost contact with Howardtown,” Grimshaw explained as the two women walked slowly towards the maintenance bay, “comms is probably down…sun-spots or something, I don’t know,” Grimshaw shrugged, “Anyway The Captain’s sending out a platoon to check it out.”

“Cool,” Astrid grinned at the thought of getting away from Tedium for a couple of days and maybe even seeing some new faces, “so you want my guys to drive the trucks?”

“Nah,” Grimshaw shook her head, “you’ll be going by chopper, they’re sending one over from Brigade HQ special, you an’ your section’ll be going along to make up the numbers.”

“Make up the numbers?” Astrid repeated, there were only six women (including herself) in her section and they were supposed to ‘make up the numbers’?

Astrid knew what this was all about; when Tedium (or Patrol Base 25 as it was officially known) had been set up it had been built to accommodate a company sized combat team. Now all that was left were two understrength infantry platoons and her own equally understrength motor transport platoon plus a few service personnel to help keep things running smoothly.

“Hey, I thought you’d be pleased at the prospect of getting outta here for a couple of days,” Grimshaw laughed, “of course if you don’t wanna…?”

“Yeah, okay,” Astrid replied quickly not wanting to miss out on a chance of getting away from Tedium for a while.

“Good,” Grimshaw nodded her head firmly, “have your people ready by oh-seven-thirty tomorrow, full fighting load, okay?”

“You expecting us to run into trouble?” Astrid asked almost hopefully; all she wanted was one small battle to tell tall tales about then she’d happily settle down, get herself a life-partner and have loads of kids.

“Nah,” Grimshaw gave a little shake of her head, “The Captain thinks people are getting slack,” the two women exchanged looks and tried not to laugh too loudly, “he’s using it as an excuse for everyone to act like soldiers again.”

“Yeah right,” Astrid said quietly, like that was ever going to happen.

“Whatever,” Grimshaw continued, “just get y’self an’ your people to the landing pad by zero-seven-thirty tomorrow and I’ll be happy, okay?”

“Okay,” Astrid agreed as she watched her platoon sergeant heading off for her tent, or more likely the tent of Sergeant Connor, one of the infantry platoon sergeants, who she more or less lived with nowadays. While Astrid wasn’t too worried about going out on an operation, she wasn’t too sure about the rest of the women in her section, they probably weren’t going to be so happy about the news.

0=0=0=0

When Interplanetary Expeditionary Force Five had landed on Yanlor just over a year ago it had been a fully equipped and highly trained Motor Infantry Brigade, consisting of four battalions of infantry, an artillery regiment, a helicopter battalion and all the other service units that were deployed to help the fighting soldier fight. However there was nothing on Yanlor to fight, not even the Bugs had paid them very much attention.

But this was how the Department for Colonisation and the War Department liked to work things. Before the first colonists even left Terra you landed a military task force just to check the colony site out. Astrid remembered those first few weeks on planet with something approaching affection. Her unit (the 54th Motor Transport Battalion) seemed to be on constant call to shift the infantry battalions around as they conducted sweeps of Yanlor’s grassy plains. Then as each day passed and nothing rose up to challenge humanities arrival on Yanlor, the tempo of operations started to slow down until they finally stopped and the company patrol bases had been built.

As the first colonists arrived and set up their settlements the military forces started to shrink. First the artillery and helicopter units were withdrawn; next it was the combat veterans from the infantry battalions who were still young enough to warrant transferring to other units. Next people weren’t replaced if they were injured or their enlistments ran out and they either went home to Terra or became colonists. This was how, at the age of twenty, Astrid had become a lance corporal, normally she wouldn’t have been considered for promotion until she was at least twenty-one.

First her section corporal had broken her leg, she’d been sent to the base hospital and then been reassigned. That left Lance Corporal Helen Jackson in charge of the section. Obviously she either couldn’t stand the responsibilities or command, or the boredom of Tedium. Whatever the reason, she dug the Contraceptive Chip out of her arm with a combat knife and washed the drug out of her system by drinking gallons of water. Next she screwed around until she got pregnant and lastly she collected her ‘medical discharge’ and left the army. That was how Astrid found herself in charge of five other women in a platoon that didn't even have an officer and was about a fifty-percent understrength.

She knew how it was all supposed to end, she’d read about it on the Interweb. This was why she was so desperate for any chance she might have of getting into some sort of combat before the unit disintegrated. First the WD withdrew any soldiers that it could still a find use for, next they stopped sending replacements. Eventually the force numbers would wither down to a point were the numbers of female soldiers reached parity with the male soldiers. Then as time passed the male and female soldiers would pair off and start families as the effectiveness of the contraceptive chips faded to nothing and ‘hey presto’, you had a military colony. 

It wasn’t that Astrid minded the idea of being stuck on Yanlor for the rest of her life and the idea of a life-partnership and kids didn’t exactly fill her with terror either. It was way better than the life of a waitress, that would probably have led to her becoming a hooker that she’d been heading for, before she’d enlisted. But, to Astrid’s mind you weren’t really a proper soldier until someone had shot at you or at least tried to bite your leg off.

All these thoughts had been going through her mind as she’d dumped her toolbox at the maintenance bay and headed back to the converted cargo container she called home. Walking into the twilight world of the container, Astrid paused to let her eyes adapt. The only other member of her section who was immediately visible was Private Samantha (Sam) Rispoli who was sitting on her bunk sewing up the seam of her camouflaged trousers.

“Where’s everyone Sam?” Astrid asked as she walked over to her own bunk, opened her locker and took out her soap and towel.

“Brandi and Kandi are over at the cookhouse,” Sam looked up from her sewing, “and Lea’s working.”

“Working?” Astrid gave Sam a questioning frown only to have it returned with a knowing look, “Oh!” Astrid sighed, “You mean ‘working’.”

“Yeah, like, duh,” Sam went back to her sewing.

“Okay,” Astrid moved towards the door, towel and soap in hand, “if you see anyone tell ‘em to make sure to see me before they go to the club tonight.”

“Why?” Sam tied off the thread she’d been using and cut the loose end with her teeth.

“We’re out on operations tomorrow,” Astrid explained, “an’ I don’t want anyone having a hangover, okay?”

“Operations?” Sam frowned, “Y’mean like driving right?”

“Nope,” Astrid smiled, “we’re gonna be playing soldiers for real.”

“Oh crap,” Sam sighed as her shoulders slumped, “if I break a nail or something….”

“Hey look,” Astrid tried to injected some ‘pep’ into her voice, “look at it this way, we’re going to Howardtown, you might meet some wealthy rancher who’ll make you his life-partner and take you away from all this,” Astrid gestured to the interior of the container.

“Yeah,” Sam scoffed, “like that’s gonna happen.” 

Sam had been a society girl who’d joined the army as a way of getting back at her parents over some long forgotten argument. When her parents hadn’t immediately arranged for her discharge (as she’d planned for them to do) Sam had found herself doing a six year hitch at a truck driver, she’d not been best pleased at the prospect.

“Okay, remember what I said,” Astrid called as she headed out the door and turned her feet towards the women’s ablutions container.

0=0=0=0

After a good, long, hot shower, Astrid put her dirty uniform in the recycling machine and got a new one out of the clothes dispenser. As she got into her freshly made uniform, she wondered how long the dispenser would keep working and when they’d have to start washing everything at the base laundry. Rubbing her hair dry with her towel (Astrid kept her dark brown hair short, it was easier to deal with than having it long like Sam’s) she headed over to where Lea Gunn had set up her ‘business’.

Private Lea Gunn had been a prostitute in civilian life; that is until she got caught. The judge at her trial had given her the option; enforced transportation for life to a frontier colony or a six year term in the army. The judge had promised that if Lea came out of the army after six years with an honourable discharge her criminal record would be expunged. Lea had been doing well, almost a model soldier, until she realised that she was in all probability going to spend the rest of her life on Yanlor. At this point she’d reverted to her former profession and opened up her own little ‘knocking shop'. It didn’t help that she’d found a container completely full of condoms; there must have been millions of them.

Why the WD thought that the Yanlor garrison would need millions of condoms, Astrid could never work out. After all everyone had a contraceptive chip that lasted five years implanted on the first day of Basic Training. Perhaps they were worried about disease, maybe the powers that be thought they were all going to start screwing the bugs. Who knew the reasoning behind the bureaucratic mind? Whatever, the condoms were there and Lea had found them; she saw a market (male soldiers’ outnumbered female ones by at least four to one) and she filled it. The condoms just ensured she and her customers wouldn’t come down with any ‘anti-social diseases’.

Coming around the corner of a container, Astrid saw one of Lea’s customers furtively leaving her ‘shop’. Walking over to the container before anyone else had a chance to slip in, Astrid knocked on the metal door and walked in to find Lea cleaning herself up after her last customer.

“Oh, sorry,” Astrid turned away to give Lea time to put on a robe or something.

“Hey Corporal,” Lea called happily on seeing her section leader, “what you doin’ here? I don’t normally do girl on girl action but….”

“Business not pleasure,” Astrid turned to find Lea standing next to her bed dressed in a robe that covered her from neck to ankle.

“What’s up?” Lea sat down on her bed and reached for a pack of cigarettes, she offered one to Astrid, “Want one?” when Astrid refused, Lea put a cigarette in her mouth and lit it with an ancient petrol lighter, “So what’s so all fired important that you have to come in and cut into my working day?”

“We’re going out on operations tomorrow,” Astrid explained, “milk-run up to Howardtown, nothing to worry about, but they want us to play soldiers.”

“Shoot,” Lea sighed disappointedly; Lea was Astrid’s most experienced soldier she’d even been shot at once, “oh well it’ll make a change from bein’ on my back all day, when? Where?”

“Tomorrow, Zero-seven-thirty, at the helipad,” Astrid explained.

“No problem,” Lea got up, “no need to worry, Corporal, I’ll be there bright eyed and ready for anything.”

“Thanks,” Astrid smiled, she knew she could rely on Lea, if she said she’d do something you could take it to the bank, Astrid turned to go, “see you later?”

“Maybe,” Lea called as she started to look for her military gear for the morrow, “I’m thinking of having an early night, y’know?”

“Sure,” Astrid grinned and headed on out into the daylight.

0=0=0=0

Pausing outside Lea’s container, Astrid looked up at the sun (it gave off a slightly bluer light than the sun of Terra) before checking her watch, it was nearly seventeen o’clock. So far she’d found, Lea and Sam, she could talk to Judy when she got back to the container and she knew roughly where Brandi and Kandi would be at this time of day. The two half cousins (or whatever they were, the girl's relationship was convoluted to say the least) had been helping out in the cookhouse ever since the food replicators had broken down and the Quartermaster Sergeant hadn’t been able to get any spares. Now everyone’s food was cooked by hand and the quality had improved dramatically.

The thought of the two city girls being taken out of the cookhouse for a couple of days made Astrid frown. Good food was important to moral, it said so in her NCO’s handbook (so why did the food out of the army issue replicators taste like crap?). Would Tedium’s morale survive the two girl’s absence from the cookhouse? Astrid shrugged, it would have to and their fan club would have to live without them for forty-eight hours, (both girls were short, extremely pretty, blonde, busty and they could cook; they’d have no trouble finding life-partners when the time came). If everyone else was going to have to put up with pounding through the dusty grass of Yanlor, Brandi and Kandi could do the same.

Finding herself back at her container, Astrid stepped inside to find Sam and Judy squabbling over who owned which bits of military kit. Obviously everything was doing fine here and needed no input from her. Checking her watch again, she saw it was time to get over to the cookhouse, have her dinner and tell Brandi and Kandi the good news.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**Patrol Base Tedium, Zero-Seven-ten the following morning.**

The five women of Third section, Third Platoon stood in a short line outside the cargo container that they called home. They watched their section leader with a mixture of trepidation and confusion. No one could quite work out why Astrid was getting so up-tight about this patrol. Okay, so they’d not put bullets in their spare magazines and yeah their canteens didn’t have water in them, but all that stuff was heavy and it wasn’t as if anything was going to happen. All they’d be doing today was checking on some dumb-assed colonists and then go off and play soldier ‘til the L-t got bored and then come home again. But no, Astrid was acting like this was going to be some sort of a major battle or something.

“…and Sam,” Astrid called as four of her five soldiers headed off back to the container, “change into a freckin’ issue bra would ya?” turning to where Lea was standing Astrid sighed, “An’ what are you grinning at?”

Lea had been the only other member of the section (apart from Astrid) who’d dressed correctly and was carrying her full load of ammo and equipment.

“Oh nothin’ Corps,” Lea smirked.

“Hey Lea,” Astrid turned towards the ex-hooker with pleading in her eyes, “I mean, a push up bra f’frecks sake!?”

“I know, I know,” Lea sympathised; in her book there was a time and a place for push-up bras and going on patrol wasn’t one of them…those things were damn uncomfortable. “This is really important to you isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Astrid sighed quietly, “I know we’re like here forever and I can live with that, but….”

“But you really want that Combat Infantry Badge don’t you?” Lea said quietly.

“Is it that obvious?” Astrid asked raising an eyebrow.

“Uh-huh,” Lea nodded.

“Oooh,” Astrid sulked, “I just wanna be shot at once, just a little bit so I can say I was a real soldier…that I didn’t spend all my time as a remf.”

“Nothin’ wrong with being a remf,” Lea pointed out.

“That’s alright for you to say,” Astrid pointed out, “you’ve already got your CIB.”

“If you want it so bad, Astrid,” Lea said, “you can have mine.”

“Nah,” Astrid shook her head, “keep it…I’ll get my own.”

Just then the other members of third section sauntered out of the container chattering like school girls.

“MOVE YOUR ASSES AN’ GET FELL IN!” Astrid yelled having lost patience with her section; checking her watch she saw she had ten minutes before they needed to be at the helipad. “Okay people,” Astrid continued in a more relaxed tone, “check those pouches are secure…” the young women of third section checked that all their pouches were secure as they sorted themselves out and into line. “Freakin’ heck people,” Astrid groaned, “you sound like a bunch of schoolgirls going to their first prom dance…now get a grip!”

Astrid came to attention in front of her section.

“Stand properly at ease,” she waited for her girls to settle down and stand properly ‘at ease’, “section…” much to her surprise third section braced up at her word of command, perhaps they were going to try and pretend to be soldiers after all, “…section, ‘shun!” Third section came to ‘attention’ at her word of command, that was better, Astrid told herself. “Turn to the right…right turn!” Once again the young women moved at her commands, “At the double…double march!”

Leading her little force, Astrid trotted them towards the helipad and started to think that maybe, just maybe, her section would hold together and act like soldiers just long enough for them to complete their mission. After that she neither knew or cared what anybody did, she had a feeling that this was her last chance to be a _real_ soldier. Perhaps when they got back to Tedium she’d start looking for a life-partner; that corporal who worked in the quartermaster’s stores was cute and he’d already asked her if she’d go out with him for a beer or two.

0=0=0=0

Doubling her section onto the landing field, Astrid ignored the ironic cheers and slow clapping of the riflemen who were sitting in the grass. Slowing her section to ‘quick time’ before bringing them to a halt, she turned them to the left before falling them out. Turning to go find the Lieutenant in charge and report in, she found the man in question standing about six feet away from her. Not sure whether she should salute or not, after all this was officially a combat mission and you didn’t salute in combat, Astrid braced to attention.

“Third section, reporting, SIR!” Astrid snapped out.

“At-at ease, Lance Corporal…?” the officer asked hesitantly.

“Lance Corporal Hall, sir,” Astrid took a moment to examine the rifle officer.

He was about five-nine or five-ten and a little overweight. He had a round face with dirty blond hair sticking out from under his helmet. With a sinking heart she noticed that all his kit was very new looking and he held his rifle like he didn’t know what to do with it. After her quick assessment of Lt Henderson, Astrid’s eyes clicked over to where the rifle platoon’s sergeant stood behind his officer. Sergeant Burden she knew from driving him and his men around the area when the base had first been set up. Unlike his officer, Sergeant Burden was a twenty year veteran and no doubt on his last operational posting, if there was any trouble on this mission he’d see them through…not that here was going to be any trouble, everyone said so, so it must be true. The officer was starting to speak again, so Astrid turned her full attention back to him.

“Look here, Lance Corporal Hall or whatever your name is,” Henderson was now standing about a foot or so in front of her, “I didn’t want any women on this patrol but I’m stuck with you. Just do what you’re told and keep out of the way and we’ll get along fine, understand?”

“Y-yes sir!” Astrid replied as the officer stomped off, she looked at Sergeant Burden for some sort of explanation, “What’s up with him, Sergeant?”

“Oh don’t fuss about him, Astrid,” Burden smiled down at her, “he’s just a no account Whimpering-Nigel who thought he’d be winning new worlds for the Alliance single handed, then they sent him here.”

Astrid smirked as she joined Burden in watching the L-t make his way back to where the rest of his platoon sat in the grass around the helipad.

“Your people all geared up?” Burden asked.

“Full combat load, Sarge,” Astrid reassured him, “tell me straight, is there gonna be any action on this trip?”

“Nah,” Burden shook his head, “damn-fool colonists probably broke their radio, chances are they haven’t even noticed.” Sergeant Burden shrugged, “we’ll repair it then spend a day or two playing silly buggers in the bush then come home.”

Astrid found it hard to hide her disappointment, the old NCO noticed her frustrated look.

“Why so down? I’d have thought…” Sergeant Burden paused as he remembered something, “…of course!” he laughed, “You actually wanna get into combat, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Astrid admitted miserably, it was looking increasingly likely that she’d never hear a shot fired in anger.

“Hey,” Sergeant Burden put a fatherly hand on her shoulder, “combat ain’t what it’s all cracked up to be, y’know?”

“Yeah okay,” Astrid agreed sadly.

“Tell you what,” Burden cheered up, “when we get back, why don’t you shack up with me an’ I’ll tell you all the war stories you’ll ever wanna hear?”

“Erm,” Astrid noticed the glint in Burden’s eye, was he being serious? If she said ‘yeah, okay’, he might get serious then…?

“Too old for you, eh?” Burden shrugged, “Oh well never mind, have to find myself a colonist’s daughter.” Burden laughed before taking a deep breath, “Look, like the L-t said, do what you’re told and don’t get in anyone’s way and we can get this over with without anyone getting hurt, okay?”

“Yeah okay, Sarge,” Astrid replied resignedly; why did the army teach its female soldiers how to fight if no one would let them?

0=0=0=0

When it arrived the helicopter transport was an hour late. By this time even Astrid was thinking that the entire operation was a waste of time and they could have had an hour extra in bed. To add insult to injury the chopper (a big twin rotor aircraft) blew up so much dust that it started a sandstorm which swept through the base. Head down and eyes half closed, Astrid led her section aboard the chopper and towards the front of the aircraft; they were first on so they’d be last off. Doing the responsible ‘NCO-thing’, Astrid checked that all her section were securely strapped into their seats before she sat down and strapped herself in.

The last time Astrid had been on a helicopter was back in basic over two years ago, but she found that her training soon came back to her. However, her stomach still lurched as the pilot seemed to throw the chopper into the air. Once they were airborne the pilot climbed to about a thousand feet, circled the base once then headed off north-east towards Howardtown which was situated about twenty-five or thirty miles away. The flight would take about fifteen minutes or so and gave Astrid time to loosen her safety belt and look out of the little window by her left shoulder.

The North Continent of Yanlor was a vast grassy plain, here and there the monotony of this featureless wilderness was broken by small terraced hills that seemed to erupt like zits on the face of the plain; there were also small clumps of large, tree-like ferns growing here and there. The oddest thing about the place was that there were no rivers. Every so often water would bubble to the surface and form lakes, but there was no flowing water. Remember back to a conversation she’d had with the assistant to a geologist, Astrid remembered the woman telling her that all the rivers were underground. Where all this water came from no one had, as yet, discovered. Also there was no evidence that it had ever rained and the only other large bodies of water were the salty seas hundreds of miles away. It was all a mystery, but as humanity had only been on Yanlor for a couple of years there was still a lot to learn about the planet’s biosphere and how it actually worked.

0=0=0=0

Blinking, Astrid realised that she must have drifted off into a daydream as she’d gazed out the porthole, looking down she saw Howardtown slip by beneath her. They were still about a thousand feet up and the town looked to be about half a mile away, but even at this range the place looked suspiciously deserted. The chopper continued to circle the settlement as the crew tried to make contact, obviously no one in town seemed to be watching out for any aircraft that day or listening in on their short range comms. Astrid could tell all this from the puzzled looks which the crew were giving each other; sitting up front gave her the advantage of a good view into the cockpit.

Next the helicopter ‘driver’ tried a few low level passes over the settlement. Sneaking another peek out of her porthole, Astrid didn’t see any colonists rush into the spaces between buildings to see what the freck was going on. Feeling someone taping her on the knee, Astrid turned to find Sergeant Burden leaning over her.

“Astrid!” he yelled over the noise from the chopper’s motors, “Something weird’s going on down there…” he gestured through the helicopter’s deck at the village below, “…we’re goin’ in for a tactical landing.” Astrid nodded her head. “Your section will be last out,” Burden shouted, “hang back an’ provide security for the chopper, okay?”

“Okay!” Astrid yelled back.

Burden gave her a reassuring smile before working his way back along the chopper to where Lt Henderson was sitting. Unstrapping her safety harness, Astrid went round to each of her section mates and yelled their instructions into their ears. After receiving an acknowledgement from each woman, Astrid went back to her seat, strapped herself back in and checked her rifle. Loading a full magazine into the weapon’s receiver she rested it muzzle down between her feet. One by one her section-mates followed suit.

0=0=0=0

The chopper seemed to drop like a stone and Astrid had the feeling that any second now her stomach was going to come up and out through her mouth; across the aisle from her Kandi turned a strange shade of deep green and Astrid thought for a moment that the girl was going to throw up on the deck (not something that endeared you to the Air Corps). Luckily, Kandi kept control of her stomach as the chopper plummeted towards the ground. Just as Astrid was beginning to think that perhaps the helicopter was actually crashing, the pilot pulled up on the collective and slowed the chopper sufficiently so that when it landed no one ended up with a broken back. As soon as the helicopter touched down, the riflemen sprang to their feet and started to pile out of the rear cargo door.

“UP! UP!” Astrid yelled as she punched the quick release on her harness and jumped to her feet, “COME ON PEOPLE OUT!”

Lea was first out of the chopper, followed swiftly by Judy, Brandi and Kandi which only left Sam still struggling to free herself from her safety harness. Stepping over to Sam, Astrid quickly freed the girl from her harness and pulled her to her feet before pushing her towards the exit. On getting outside Astrid found the rest of her section in a tight semi-circle around the rear cargo door.

“DEPLOY!” Astrid yelled over the roar of the motors, “FIFTY YARD PERIMETER!”

Catching the warning look from Lea as everybody jumped to their feet, Astrid realised that everyone would be isolated, there were only six of them and a fifty yard perimeter would leave them pretty spread out. Deciding it couldn’t be helped, Astrid ran to fill a space between Judy and Sam which also allowed her to follow the actions of the rest of the platoon as they made their way towards the settlement.

Hunkering down, Astrid watched as the platoon’s sections shook themselves out into a skirmish line and started to move towards the settlement in fifty yard bounds. It would appear that L-t Henderson at least knew something of what he was doing and was taking no chances; or maybe this was evidence of Sergeant Burden making ‘suggestions’ to his officer. The platoon was almost at the edge of the settlement when, without warning, the noise made by the helicopter’s engines suddenly increased in volume and the aircraft took off.

Turning in panic, Astrid watched as the chopper gained altitude and turned to the south before flying away. Although she wasn’t on the same frequency as the chopper so she couldn’t hear what was being said, the amount of surprised and near panicking chatter on the platoon net told her that the chopper’s rapid departure wasn’t part of the game plan for the mission. Slowly Sergeant Burden regained control and got everybody to shut up.

Not having been given any new orders and with no helicopter to protect, Astrid used her initiative and told her section to rally on her. Moments later she was surrounded by five nervous looking young women who all wanted to know what was going on. A walk in the park had suddenly turned into something else; what, Astrid didn’t know, but it felt ‘bad’.

“Shut-up and let me think!” Astrid snapped bringing everyone’s useless speculation to an abrupt end; Astrid took a couple of calming breaths, “Lea, you’re second in command, okay?” Lea nodded her head, “Brandi, Kandi you’re Lea’s team, Judy, Sam you’re with me…okay,” okay, Astrid told herself what next, “Check your gear make sure your mags are loaded and…”

Astrid caught the looks a couple of her section were giving each other and her.

“Please tell me you loaded your mags?” Astrid felt like crying just at this moment, “Like you did bring your ammo?” Although she’d told everyone to carry a full load (six full magazines of twenty-five rounds each) she wouldn’t put is passed anyone except Lea to have ignored her. “Okay,” Astrid signed defeated, “what’s everyone got?”

As it turned out it wasn’t too bad, most everyone had all their ammo they just hadn’t taken it from its clips and put it into their magazines. As they all huddled in a circle frantically thumbing rounds into magazines, Astrid heard Lt Henderson’s voice demanding to know, ‘what the freck she thought she was doing’. More than a little annoyed, Astrid snapped back that she was waiting for him to give her some orders rather than just yelling at her, ‘SIR!’. The radio went dead for a moment or two and the next voice she heard was Sergeant Burden calmly telling her to bring her section up and into the settlement. He also told her to keep her eyes open for trouble.

“Okay,” Astrid looked around at her section as they thumbed home the last few spare rounds, “tactical move to the settlement,” she gestured towards the village, “we’ll move in two arrowheads one behind the other, my team leads, Lea you bring up the rear.”

Lea nodded her understanding.

“Sergeant Burden says to keep our eyes open,” Astrid looked at each member of her section in turn, “so, keep a good look out and sing out if you see anything weird. I don’t know what’s gone wrong so don’t ask. Until someone tells us different we treat this like it was real, okay?”

There were uncertain nods from the other women in the section.

“Good,” Astrid climbed slowly to her feet, “okay lets move!”

Shaking themselves out into formation, third section started to walk towards the settlement. Unknown to them they were being watched by a multitude of inhuman eyes unseen by the section who walked on in total ignorance of the danger all around them.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**Near Howardtown, Yanlor.**

“Astrid, whit is ‘at?” Judy, a pretty, pale skinned, red-haired girl with an accent most people found impenetrable, pointed to something in the grass.

Trotting over to where Judy stood, Astrid, who’d known Judy since Basic so could understand what she was saying (most of the time), looked down at the dark hole in the ground.

“Don’t know,” Astrid shrugged before crouching down to examine the hole, it was about three feet across and went down about another six feet before it appeared to join up with a tunnel that disappeared off into the dark.

“What’s up?” Lea called as she organised, Brandi, Kandi and Sam into a loose cordon around where Astrid and Judy crouched.

“Don’t know,” Astrid repeated before adding, “some sorta hole or something.”

Walking over to Astrid and Judy, Lea peered into the hole and spat.

“Yep, it’s a hole alright,” she agreed.

“Smart-ass,” Astrid muttered.

“Swatch!” Judy pointed to another spot a few feet away, “Ur those footprints?”

Standing up, Astrid went to look at this new mystery, Lea came and stood between Astrid and Judy

“I know what those are,” Lea announced with a smile.

“Well, y’gonna tell or are y’gonna keep it all to y’self?” Astrid wanted to know.

“Those are bug-prints,” Lea explained, “when we first arrived on planet I got real close to some bugs and those are bug-prints.”

The bugs were the largest land animals found so far on Yanlor, they were about the size of a man, they were a shinny black in colour, ate grass and were pretty harmless, at least everyone said so and there was no evidence to say that they’d ever attacked a human. In fact the bugs tended to ignore humans as they wandered about the plains of Yanlor cropping the grass. Most people thought that the bugs weren’t all that bright.

“They live in these holes, see,” Lea gestured to the hole, “in little family groups.”

“Hey listen to knowledge-girl,” Astrid joked, “how come you know all this crap.”

“Oh,” Lea sighed at a fond memory, “when we first got here I was screwing this biologist guy who was studying the bugs.”

“So you sucked out all his knowledge while you were screwing him, eh?” Astrid asked with a knowing grin.

“Hey, honey,” Lea raised an eyebrow as she turned to look at Astrid, “that’s not all I sucked out of him!”

“So, it’s not dangerous?” Astrid thought she better get the conversation back to the business in hand, “Not anything we need worry about or report?”

“Nah,” Lea shook her helmeted head, “bugs are harmless, everyone says so, ignore it.”

“Okay people,” Astrid called out, “Back into formation, let’s join up with the others.”

Leading her section towards the settlement Astrid noticed several other ‘bug-holes’ and lots of bug-prints in the sandy soil. Thinking nothing more of it she led her people into the settlement. Howardtown was a typical frontier settlement, most of the buildings were standard prefab habitat units or converted cargo containers. Whoever had laid them out hadn’t any idea about town planning. The habitat units appeared to have been just dumped haphazardly on the plain. Power cables and what were probably water and waste pipes snaked between the buildings. Of the hundred plus people who were supposed to live in Howardtown there was no sign.

In fact the only sign of life where the riflemen who’d been searching the place and who were now standing or sitting in little groups not exactly resting but not on full alert either. Telling her section to wait for her outside a shop with a broken door, Astrid went in search of Sergeant Burden. As she walked through the village she started to notice other things that were broken or out of place; a smashed window, an overturned handcart, some clothes strewn on the ground under a washing line. It was as if someone had been hanging out their washing and then had run away for no apparent reason. Stopping where a little knot of riflemen was standing in the shade of a habitat unit, Astrid asked them if they’d seen Sergeant Burden.

“I’ll show you,” a private pushed himself to his feet and started to lead Astrid along what passed for Howardtown’s main street.

“Y’know what happened here?” Astrid asked, “Where all the people went?”

“Nope,” the rifleman shook his head, “place was pretty much like this when we found it.”

“Weird,” Astrid breathed the word quietly, “you mean you found no one around?”

“Hey, we’d only been here five minutes before the copter took off,” the rifleman pointed out defensively, “not much time to do a thorough search, y’know?”

“Yeah I get that,” Astrid replied, “but…”

Before she could finish what she was saying the rifleman pointed to a large habitat unit, probably the settlement’s admin office.

“Sarge is there with the new L-t,” the rifleman turned to go.

“Hey thanks,” Astrid called pleasantly before heading towards the building.

Once inside she found Sergeant Burden, the L-t and the two corporal section leaders belonging to the Rifle platoon all in deep discussion about the present situation. Standing to the right of the door she’d entered by, Astrid waited for someone to notice her.

“Corporal Hall,” Sergeant Burden called on catching sight of her, “come and join the group…” there was an audible sigh from the two rifles corporals and a silent frown from the L-t, “…after all you are a section leader today,” he added pointedly to the others.

“Now we’re all here,” Lt Henderson said with heavy sarcasm as he glanced disapprovingly at Astrid, “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.” The L-t took a deep breath, “As you saw the chopper took off without warning,” he glanced at Astrid as if the helicopter’s departure was some how her fault, “apparently there’s some emergency down south near Brigade HQ,” Henderson let this news sink in for a heartbeat. “So this leaves us twenty-five or more miles away from home…if we set a good pace and everyone can keep up,” again Henderson looked accusingly at Astrid, “we could be home by evening.”

Ignoring Henderson’s pointed remarks, Astrid did the time-distance calculations in her head. A human could move at four miles an hour across good going and as the plains were generally flat and the grass only knee high they could do that easily. Okay so twenty-five miles in six hours wasn’t a problem. Add some time for the unexpected that meant they could be back at Tedium in six to eight hours.

“So let’s find some extra water and any rations we might need and get a move on,” Henderson finished speaking, just as he was about to dismiss everyone, Burden spoke up.

“Erm, L-t,” Burden began slowly, “what about the colonists?”

“The colonist?” Henderson repeated, “What about them?”

“Well,” Burden shrugged his wide, powerful, shoulders (Astrid started to wonder if she’d been a little hasty about refusing the sergeant’s offer of shacking up together), “L-t shouldn’t we make a thorough search for them?”

“I don’t think so,” Henderson said in a superior tone of voice, “the colonists have obviously gone somewhere for their own reasons and a search will just slow us down, we need to get back to Tedium.”

“Tedium will still be there even if we spend an hour looking around, L-t,” Burden pointed out.

“Erm,” Henderson hesitated for just a moment before continuing, “that emergency call from Brigade HQ sounded pretty urgent, I think we better get back to base as soon as possible…”

“But, L-t…” Burden tried to say something more but Henderson cut him off before he could get started.

“Look, _Sergeant_ ,” Henderson sneered, “I’m in command here and what I say goes…so, if its alright with you,” Henderson turned to the two rifle corporals and ignored Burden and Astrid, “we move in thirty, in the mean time search the place for food and water, enough to last a couple of days.”

“Sir!” the two corporals braced to attention before heading for the door, no doubt thankful to be getting out of the bad atmosphere.

Gathering up Astrid with his eye, Burden headed for the door with her right behind him. Following the big, veteran, sergeant out the door and around a corner, they stopped where they couldn’t be seen by the rest of the platoon.

“Astrid,” Burden turned to look down at her, “you keep your head down around that asshole Henderson, understand?”

“Sure thing Sarge,” Astrid nodded before asking, “What’s goin’ on?”

“Something weird and that’s f’sure,” Burden gave her a worried smile, “and its ‘Ian’ when no one’s around…look,” Burden gazed into Astrid’s eyes for a moment, “you’re a cute kid I don’t wanna see you hurt on account of that asshole Henderson. If the shit hits the air-con you and your people keep an eye on me and do what I do, okay?”

“Erm, I think so Sar…I mean Ian,” Astrid went on slowly (right about now she was seriously considering Sergeant Burden as a life-partner and the father of her children), “you think that the shit will hit the air-con, I mean I’ve not seen anything weird goin’ on.”

“Hey,” Burden shrugged his shoulders and Astrid went sort of weak at the knees, “it’s just a feeling,” he smiled, “I’m probably talking outta my ass, now go to your people an' get ‘em ready.”

“Roger that, Sarge,” Astrid smiled up into the sergeant’s grey eyes deciding then and there that when they got back to Tedium she’d try him out in his bunk one night; with thoughts of a night of passion with the big sergeant still going through her head, Astrid went and rejoined her section.

0=0=0=0

Sure enough, thirty minutes after Astrid left Burden, Henderson gave the order to move out. In the time between talking to Burden and heading out of the settlement, Astrid and her section had filled some plastic bottles with water and found a load of sealed food packs that didn’t need to be cooked before consumption. They also found a couple of civilian backpacks to put everything in, the girls in each team would take it turns to carry the extra rations.

Finding themselves put more or less in the centre of the platoon as they formed into a loose column on leaving the village, Astrid walked along, rifle in hand scanning the grass for movement. She didn’t really know what she expected to see, perhaps there was some unknown life form out there that had caused the colonists to run off. The settlers could just as easily all gone mad, ripped off their clothes and run off out onto the plain never to be seen again; maybe someone would find their bleached bones in fifty years time.

Listening to her own feet and legs as the swished through the grass, Astrid looked up and down the column. No one seemed to be taking much interest in the plain around them, there wasn’t much to see. Little flying, insect-like creatures with three sets of translucent wings fluttered between the stalks of grass, seemingly playing tag with each other in the heat haze that rose off the ground. In the distance she could see one of the strange terraced hills that rose up haphazardly all over the plains. A few clumps of the fern like trees grew near the base of the hills, but other than that there was no sign of life. 

Finding herself switching off from the mind numbing business of moving one foot in front of the other, Astrid didn’t really notice the slight rise she’d been climbing until the column stopped and some one called out in excitement. Looking up and around, Astrid realised what all the excitement was about; there in a shallow depression in the plain was another settlement. Not as big as Howardtown, perhaps two thirds the size; this village had one thing Howardtown didn’t have, however, people!

0=0=0=0

The colonists were at first puzzled by why the military was out here so far from their base. No, they didn’t know what had happened to the inhabitants of Howardtown and ‘no’ they hadn’t noticed anything unusual; even if the two settlements were only a mile away from each other. In fact Astrid got the distinct impression that the colonists from the two settlements didn’t get on, there was something in the headman’s tone of voice that said the people of Howardtown were not welcome in his ‘town’.

Everything had been going fine with the colonists starting to relax around the soldiers and offering them refreshments. It was then that Lt Henderson had decided he was going to evacuate the settlement’s inhabitants and take them back to Base Tedium. The headman had lost it right then and there, he yelled at the L-t calling him all sorts of unpleasant names; Astrid’s opinion of the officer was pretty low, but even she didn’t think he deserved to be called some of the things the headman was calling him.

“Whit’s gonnae oan?” Judy asked as she came up to watch the fun.

“L-t’s just told the headman,” Astrid pointed to the ranting figure, “that him and his people have gotta come with us.”

“Crap!” Judy cursed, “Dae ye ken whit 'at means?”

“Yeah,” Astrid nodded her head, “it means we’ll be late home coz we’ve gotta drag a bunch of reluctant colonists along for the ride.”

“Aye,” Judy nodded her head and spat with disgust into the grass, “an' Ah hud a date wi' th' Captain’s clerk tonecht.”

“Oh poor Judy,” Astrid mocked, “gonna miss out on a screw are ya?”

“Tay damn reit Ah am,” Judy confirmed; when the unit stopped being a proper military formation, being the life-partner of the C/O’s clerk would put Judy pretty high up on the social ladder.

“Never mind,” Astrid commiserated, “you’d probably have been too fucked to fuck anyway.”

“Aye, ur probably reit,” Judy agreed sadly before walking away to rejoin her section mates.

0=0=0=0

It took the platoon almost an hour to get the reluctant evacuees organised. Once the column started off again, Astrid and her section found they’d been given the unenviable task of riding herd on the colonists and ensuring that they didn’t just wander off home again. They’d not gone more that half a mile or so when the column came to a halt once more; apparently there was something up ahead on the hill in front of them that needed investigating before they moved on. Surrounding the colonists with her small force the best she could and leaving Lea in charge, Astrid climbed up the slope of another little hill next to where they’d stopped. This area of plain seemed to be pock marked with a number of the flat topped hills, many more than was usual in fact.

Climbing to the top of the hill, Astrid found it gave her about fifty feet of elevation and a clear view to the next set of hills about two hundred yards away. Up ahead, Astrid could see perhaps twenty bugs just standing on the lower terrace of the hill blocking the column’s path. This was odd, normally bugs just moved out the way when they sensed humans coming, not exactly running away but not hanging around either, these ones were just standing there.

Movement caught her eye as more little groups of bugs came over the hill to join the ones standing in the column’s way. It was just as these new bugs joined the ones blocking their way that Astrid started to feel uneasy. Perhaps what Sergeant Burden had said was starting to make her feel nervous, maybe it was the way that those bugs just stood there. Glancing down at the colonists as they sat on the grass being watched over by her section, Astrid did some quick planning, she hit the ‘send switch’ tapped to the fore grip of her rifle and activated her tactical comms.

“Lea?” Astrid called.

“Receiving,” came Lea’s immediate reply.

“Send Brandi and Kandi up here to me, you stay down there with the civ-pop, okay?” Astrid ordered.

“Roger that,” Lea replied as Astrid looked down and saw her signalling to the two city-girls to join Astrid up on the hill, “Trouble?” Lea asked.

“Not sure,” Astrid wasn’t sure but she wanted her two best marksmen up here with her; Brandi and Kandi despite there silly names, cooking abilities and cute looks were deadly accurate shots, if they’d been men they’d have been sent to sniper school straight after Basic. Even without the advanced training they were probably better shots than the guys in the two sniper teams that were covering the column’s rear.

“Okay,” Lea’s voice crackled over the comms link, “they’re on their way.”

“Roger, out,” Astrid broke the connection and went back to watching the bugs.

It now looked as if Henderson had got fed up with waiting for the bugs to run away and had sent a section forward to chase them off. There had to be at least a fifty bugs now with more joining the group by the minute. This was all wrong, Astrid told herself, those bugs should be moving off by now, the section that’d been sent to clear the path for the column was maybe thirty yards short of the lead bugs. The riflemen yelled and waved their arms about in an attempt to frighten off the bugs, but apart from shifting around a little the bug’s paid them no attention.

“Wot cha want, Astrid?”

Turning her head Astrid saw the two girls standing a couple of yards to her right; just for a moment she couldn’t help but wonder how they’d persuaded the recruiting sergeant to sign them up. Although their documentation claimed they were both nineteen, to Astrid’s eyes they didn’t look much more than sixteen or so.

“See those bugs,” Astrid pointed towards the herd of bugs up ahead, “this feels kinda hinky, take up position so you can give our guys covering fire will ya?”

“Roger that,” Kandi looked at Brandi and shrugged as much as to say that, the ways of NCO’s were strange and mysterious and not to be argued with by mere mortals such as themselves.

The two girls hunkered down on the ground and brought there rifles into the aim and began studying their prospective targets through their optical sights. For just a moment, Astrid wondered if having big boobs like the two girls helped or hindered while they were in the prone position…perhaps it just gave them some extra padding?

All thoughts of breasts as aids to good marksmanship were driven from Astrid’s mind by the sound of a ragged volley of shots coming from the hill up ahead. Looking back at the hill Astrid saw that the riflemen had fired into the air in an attempt to make the bugs back off, it looked as if it was having the exact opposite effect. Watching in horror, Astrid saw one of the bugs charge at the thin line of riflemen and drag one of them to the ground. This was a signal for more firing as more bugs charged forward only to be shot down by the riflemen. Seeing the bugs starting to lap around the end of the riflemen’s line Astrid knew she had to do something.

“Marksmen!” Astrid called sounding surprisingly calm, “Range two hundred, bugs, left flank, rapid fire!”

Bringing her own rifle up to her shoulder, Astrid joined the two city girls in firing steadily into the advancing bugs.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**Near Howardtown, Yanlor.**

“Lance Corporal Hall, what the heck do you think you’re doing!?” Lt Henderson’s call came over Astrid’s comms so loudly that it made her jump in surprise and caused her to miss the bug she’d been aiming at.

“W-what…?” Astrid began but Henderson’s voice cut her off before she could explain ‘what the heck’ she was doing.

“I ordered you to ride heard on those colonists…” Henderson screamed into her ear piece.

“But…” Astrid tried to explain but was interrupted once again.

“Get the freck down off that hill and obey orders!” Henderson’s tone told Astrid that she better obey the order no matter how stupid she thought it was.

From their position, Brandi, Kandi and Astrid had been knocking down bugs as they’d tried to out flank the section on the hill to their front. The two girls seemed to be able to bring down a bug with every shot they fired and Astrid hadn’t been doing too badly either. Looking around to where the pretty blonde girls lay behind their rifles, Astrid saw them both looking up at her, they’d obviously heard the exchange on their own comms units.

“Wot ‘e needs is a good kickin’,” Kandi observed.

“Too bleedin’ right!” agreed Brandi.

“Wot ya wan us ta do, Astrid?” Kandi asked.

“‘Spose we better do as we’re told,” Astrid replied sadly, to tell the truth she’d been enjoying herself blasting the bugs from up on the hill; “Come on.”

Turning away from the battle, Astrid led Brandi and Kandi down to where the rest of the section and the colonists waited. Although Astrid called it a battle it wasn’t much of one. After grabbing one of the riflemen the bugs hadn’t been able to get close enough to do the other men any harm. The fire from the rifle section plus the supporting fire from Astrid’s ‘marks-women’ had been enough to hold the rest of the bugs at bay. When Henderson had sent the other rifle section up the hill to support the first the bugs started to drop like…well…bugs! It was more of a slaughter than a battle and eventually the bugs had stopped coming and the firing had died down to nothing.

Getting back to the colonists, Astrid found that Lea had got them all to lie down so they wouldn’t be hit by any stray rounds. Standing there watching the colonists slowly lift their heads from the ground, Astrid did a quick head count. There were about thirty colonists, which included about a dozen children. At the moment they were in one big frightened pack, not so easy to control and too easily panicked into doing something stupid. Walking over to Lea, Astrid spoke urgently to her second in command.

“Lets break these up into family groups and put one of our people in charge of each group,” Astrid gestured to the colonists.

“I get it,” Lea nodded, “that way we can keep an eye on the bastards and stop them wanderin’ off.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Astrid nodded, “come on, before that dick Henderson starts yellin’ again.”

“Yeah I heard that,” Lea said quietly as she and Astrid hurried over to the main party of colonists, “he was totally out of order, Astrid.”

“Yeah but he’s the officer,” Astrid shrugged, “so that makes him right.”

It took Astrid’s section almost five minutes to split the colonist’s up into family groups. When the soldiers had finished there were four unevenly numbered groups each with one of Astrid’s section to lead them. This left Astrid and Lea to ride herd on the group and maybe do a little scouting. Just as they’d got themselves organised, Astrid heard Henderson’s voice come up on comms, he was ordering everyone to move on again with the two rifle sections leading, Astrid and her section in the middle with the colonists; the RPG team, machine gun team and the platoon's two sniper teams bringing up the rear.

Moving forward Astrid found that Henderson was moving them over the hill and through the scene of the battle. Bugs lay thickly on the ground and while Astrid and her section found the sight of the dead bugs interesting and in a way encouraging (they now knew that if the bugs attacked they could take them down) the sight of all the dead creatures didn’t do much for the colonist’s peace of mind. The hill was a pretty high one for Yanlor with steep slopes that made Astrid wheeze a little as she clambered to the top.

By the time the section and its colonist charges had reached the summit, the leading sections where already half way down the other side. From her vantage point at the top of the hill, Astrid could see an almost perfectly flat area of grass in front of her and in the distance a group of three small habitats. More colonists, Astrid spat into the grass, or maybe the bugs had already got to the colonists and eaten them. For a moment Astrid wondered why she’d thought that, as far as she knew bugs only ate grass and the lower branches of the fern trees, there’d never been any record of bugs eating meat. Like there’d never been any record of bugs attacking people before, the thought sent a cold shiver down her back.

“Okay people,” Astrid called out, “that’s enough sightseeing lets move out.”

With groans from the colonists and calls of ‘move it’ from the soldiers, the little column made its way down the hill and out onto the flat area where the grass swished against their legs and the little flying things danced in the hot air.

0=0=0=0

Walking backwards for a while so she could check on the positions of her charges, Astrid didn’t notice Sergeant Burden trot over to her.

“Astrid!” Burden called as he slowed and started to walk along side her now she was facing the right way.

“Hi Sarge…I mean Ian,” Astrid looked at Burden really closely for the first time; she saw a man in his mid-thirties, very fit looking, with light grey eyes, good strong teeth and yes he was handsome in a non-flashy, non-entertainment-chip sort of way. She knew he was pleasant enough, in fact just the sort of guy a girl trapped on a frontier planet for the rest of her life would want in a life-partner…so why wasn’t she so interested anymore?

“Hey,” Burden grinned, “I heard what that asshole Henderson said…”

“Did everyone hear that?” Astrid tried to keep any trace of a whine out of her voice, had Henderson deliberately broadcast on the platoon frequency just to humiliate her?

“Sorry, but yeah,” Burden looked at her sadly, “but I’m here to tell you that Corporal Jenkins says he and his guys owe you and your girls a few beers when we get back to Tedium.”

“He does?” Astrid replied more than a little surprised.

“Yeah he said he didn’t noticed the freckin’ things until you guys started to shoot ‘em down.”

“Gee,” Astrid smiled, so she had done the right thing, she’d been beginning to doubt herself.

“Forget what that Whimpering-Nigel, Henderson said,” Burden told her, “everyone else says you called it right.”

“Tell ‘em thanks would you?” Astrid was a little overwhelmed by Burden’s words and she was starting to feel all warm and fuzzy towards him again.

“But don’t let it go to your head, okay?” Burden said sharply and Astrid’s warm-fuzzy feelings disappeared almost as quickly as they’d reappeared. “Now,” Burden brought himself and Astrid to a halt as he pointed to the habitats up ahead, “see those?” Astrid nodded there was little else to see, “Henderson’s sending a section to investigate, I’m betting there’s gonna be more colonists to look after.”

After slapping Astrid on the shoulder in an ‘atta-girl’ way, Burden jogged off towards the rear to check on the snipers and the RPG team.

“Hey, you an’ Sergeant Burden got a ‘thing’ goin’?” Lea asked as she walked slowly over to where Astrid stood.

“Yes…no…I…” Astrid shrugged defeated, she didn’t know what her emotions were telling her right now, “I don’t know,” she finally admitted.

“Y’could do worse,” the hooker-soldier pointed out with a knowing smile.

“Hey you’ve not…?” Astrid was wondering if Burden had ever been one of Lea’s ‘customers’.

“Hooker-client privilege,” Lea smiled, “I can neither confirm nor deny.”

“Which means ‘yes’,” Astrid pouted.

“Can’t say one way or the other,” Lea smirked, “but I will tell you this, if’n you do take him up on his offer you won’t be disappointed.”

“Whatever,” Astrid tried to clear the visions of herself and Ian Burden doing ‘it’ together and tried to get her mind back on the problem in hand (and it wasn’t easy). “Look, there’s more habitats up ahead which probably means more colonists…”

Before Astrid could say anything else, the sound of slow steady firing came from the rear of the column. She heard Burden start to give a contact report but his voice was drowned out as Henderson blanked out everyone’s comms by demanding to know what the hell was going on. There was a moment of near silence as the sound of firing got more intense before Burden came up on comms. He gave a textbook perfect ‘contact report’ as if Henderson had never spoken, as he said ‘…am engaging’ at the end of his report, Astrid heard the swish of an RPG being fired followed almost immediately by the *CRACK!* of its warhead detonating. Quickly she realised that if there were bugs behind them the safest place for her section and the colonists was in the habitat units up ahead.

“MOVE IT PEOPLE!” Astrid shouted to get things moving, she turned to Lea, “Lea, get behind this bunch of clod-hoppers and watch out for stragglers, okay?”

“Roger that!” Lea replied before running for the rear of the group of colonists.

“COME ON PEOPLE,” Astrid yelled as the colonists started to move like frightened sheep towards the distant habitats, “MOVE IT! MOVE IT!”

Running over to the nearest party of colonists, this group led by Judy, Astrid was just in time to grab hold of and steady a colonist woman who’d tripped on something in the long grass. Stopping for a moment, Astrid looked up ahead; she could see at least one section heading for the habitats while the other section fanned out to form a corridor down which the colonists could run. Letting the colonist move past her, Astrid looked towards the rear. Of Burden and the rearguard there was no sigh other than the sight of bugs falling dead on the ground as they rose up out of their holes.

Dragging her eyes away from the scene of battle, Astrid was just in time to see a bug apparently pop up out of nowhere no more than ten yards away from her. Lifting her AR7A2 to her shoulder, she sighted on the creature and fired. The bullet hit the bug in its chest right between its forelegs. The bug went down spitting blood and hissing angrily as its legs gave way under it. Astrid hardly had time to congratulate herself when another bug sprang from the grass. A double tap from her rifle brought this one down just as a third and fourth bug appeared by the bodies of the first two.

Switching to full auto, Astrid brought them down with a controlled burst of fire, the heavy 7.62mm slugs knocked the bugs off their feet and sending them staggering backwards until their legs gave out and they fell to the ground. Realising that there must be a bug hole somewhere in the grass, Astrid advanced as she shot down yet another bug. By the time she got to the hole there were seven or eight dead bugs lying in the grass around the hole. Another short burst chopped yet another bug to dog meat as it clambered from is hole. The bug’s body blocked the hole for a moment allowing Astrid to swap her almost empty magazine for a fresh one.

Like a cork from a bottle the dead bug popped from the hole, its limp body being followed by even more live bugs that scrambled over each other in their eagerness to get at the lone human. Firing on full automatic, Astrid advanced on the hole until she was firing directly down into it. Her bullets punched into the bugs chopping up their bodies as blood squirted from their wounds and drenched the other bugs as they tried to make their way to the surface. The bugs were still coming as Astrid’s magazine ran dry, frantically her fingers scrabbled at the fastenings of her ammo pouches. Walking backwards away from the hole she watched as more bugs climbed to the surface and turned towards her,

It was only now that she saw their long sharp teeth, only now did she notice their long whip-like tails. Seemingly sensing her helplessness the bugs hissed as they moved slowly to surround her. Her hands trembling so much it took her precious seconds to get one of her ammo pouches open, Astrid kept backing away from the bugs, something told her that they’d charge any moment now and when they did she’d be torn apart in seconds.

Just as her fear-numbed hands managed to slip a fresh magazine into the housing in front of her rifle’s pistol grip, Astrid saw the bugs start their charge. Almost at the same moment as they started to move the bugs were hit by a burst of fire from Astrid’s right. Nearly screaming with relief, she saw Judy firing from the hip as she cut down the bugs as they poured from their hole. Joining in, Astrid and Judy now had the bugs in a cross fire. Any bug above ground was instantly cut down while those still in the hole were hit before they could climb properly out onto the surface, their bodies effectively sealing the hole, at least for a while.

“Ur ye alrecht?” Judy called as she slipped a fresh magazine into her rifle, “Ye looked as if ye needed some help.”

“Fine,” Astrid gasped not really believing she was still alive.

“‘Main ‘en, we better gie back tae th’ others,” Judy trotted over to Astrid, grabbed her by the arm and gave her a tug to get her moving, she grinned at her friend, “Mah, ‘at was fin!”

By the time Astrid and Judy got back to the colonists, Lea had almost got them to the habitats. The firing from the rear of the column had died down a little as the snipers and RPG men withdrew slowly in front of the advancing bugs under the covering fire of the machine gun team. From what Astrid could see there were half a dozen groups of bugs each of about ten creatures moving at a steady pace towards the humans. Fire from the sniper teams and the machine gun cut the bugs down never allowing them to approach to more than about fifty yards. However it looked from Astrid’s point of view that as soon as one group of bugs was cut down, another would spring from the grass and replace them. Another worrying thing was the bugs didn’t seem to be put off by casualties, they just kept coming.

Sure enough, Astrid’s worst fears were confirmed, there were about fifteen or twenty colonists in the three little groups of habitat units to look after. Taking Lea with her, while the rest of the section tried to stop the colonists from panicking and running off in all directions, Astrid tried to organise the new colonists and spread them out amongst the ones she’d already got. If she hadn’t been there she felt sure that the colonists would have locked themselves into their habitats. Then the bugs would have, no doubt, winkled them out and eventually eaten them, or run off across the plain and let themselves be run down by the bugs and eaten in the open.

Trying to get through to the panicking civilians that they needed food, water and any weapons they might have before fleeing, Astrid felt like shooting them herself. It was only as she and Lea split the new colonists up amongst the old that she started to worry about ammunition. In her little run in with the bugs she’d fired about seventy-five rounds which was about half her full load. Looking around Astrid saw Sam trying to organise her refugees into some sort of order.

“Sam! Sam!”” Astrid called as she trotted over to the young woman, “Have you shot at anything?”

“No,” Sam turned to look at Astrid as she continued to push colonists into line, “Why?”

“Give me a couple of your spare mags, I’m running low,” Astrid held out her hand.

“So what am I supposed to do when these bug-things get past you and start after me?” Sam wanted to know.

Astrid grinned and leaned forward so she could talk to Sam without the colonists overhearing.

“If they get past me,” Astrid shrugged, “you have my permission to throw the civ-pop at them and run!”

“Gee thanks,” Sam nodded, “I’ll bear that in mind.”

“Hey,” Astrid added, “if they get passed me we’re probably all dead anyway…” she glanced over to where the sound of firing was coming from, “…they don’t stop they just keep coming.”

“Just as well there’s not so many of them,” Sam pointed out.

“Yeah, I…” Astrid’s next words were drowned out as Henderson started to yell at everyone to get moving.

As Astrid’s section herded the colonists away from the habitat units the sniper and RPG teams passed through their ragged formation and took over the lead from the rifle sections. The rifle sections spread out to cover the columns rear blocking off what appeared to be the bug’s main point of advance. The column set a good pace as it headed south across a wide flat area which was broken only by a few clumps of fern-trees. The firing from the rear of the column settled down into a steady crackle as the rifle sections thinned out the bugs before they could get too close.

After about twenty minutes of walking, Astrid caught sight of another low hill in front of the column almost completely surrounded by fern-trees. Halting for a moment, she shaded her eyes from the sun as it rose ever higher into the bright blue heavens, she’d seen movement on the brow of the hill. Had it been a trick of the light? Perhaps it was a dust devil moving across the sandy soil…or...no, it was more bugs!

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

The Bugs swarmed over the brow of the hill like a great, black avalanche. Dust rose into the air as hundreds of sets of Bug feet pounded on the ground, Astrid could feel the vibrations made by the creature’s advance through the soles of her boots.

“WAIT UP!” Astrid yelled as she held up her hand to stop the forward motion of the colonists; turning she saw that Sam and her group were the nearest people to her. “GET BACK! GET BACK!” Astrid yelled; when no one moved and just stood there looking at her like idiots, she ran over and physically started to push people in the opposite directions, “Get these people moving!” she cried.

Snapping out of her inaction, Sam started to help Astrid get the colonists turned around and heading away from the rapidly advancing Bugs.

“Lea!” Astrid called over her comms unit before adding, “Brandi, Kandi rally on me…Judy, Sam get these people outta her NOW!”

“Swatch, thaur is nae need tae shout!” Judy replied calmly.

“Whatever,” Astrid shrugged under her equipment; turning back to face the Bugs she saw that the leading edge of the Bug horde had come down from the hill, passed through the fern trees and was now heading towards her little band at a steady run.

Raising her eyes, Astrid saw that there were even more Bugs coming over the hill, she wondered were the freck they were coming from. Glancing over her shoulder she saw Lea and the two city girls running towards her through the long grass.

“Form a skirmish line,” Astrid held out her arms to indicate where she wanted the line and in which direction she wanted it facing; not that it wasn’t obvious.

Looking from the Bugs back towards the colonist, Astrid made some calculations in her head. The Bug horde was about three hundred yards away and closing rapidly. The colonists where less than one hundred yards away and moving slowly as Sam and Judy tried to move them on like two manic sheepdogs. The civilians would never get away in time if Astrid didn’t do something to slow the Bugs down.

“Damn-it-all!” she cursed under her breath; pulling back on the charging handle of her rifle Astrid took a deep breath, “Riflemen!” she called getting everybody’s attention as the Bugs drew closer and closer, “two hundred yards, bugs in the open,” she paused to let the Bugs close just a little more before issuing the final part of her fire order, “RAPID FIRE!”

On the word ‘fire’ the fire from the short skirmish line started to eat into the Bug horde. Bugs tumbled head over heels or tripped over their legs as the 7.62mm bullets ripped through their bodies killing them instantly. Standing there pulling the trigger of her rifle as rapidly as she could, Astrid watched, almost like she was watching some training simulation, as bugs appeared in the lens of her optical sight before they stumbled and fell and she went on to a new target.

Swapping an empty magazine for a fresh one, Astrid took the opportunity to look around. The colonists, now realising the danger they were in, were running as fast as they could with Judy and Sam trying to keep them in a single group. They were about a hundred-and-fifty yards away now. Turning to her front again she saw that the bugs were less than a hundred yards distant and still closing rapidly. She saw how their fire was cutting down bugs one after the other but there always seemed to be another bug to replace it. In the few moments that the action had lasted they must have killed seventy-five to eighty bugs. After all they were easy targets and Astrid had her best shots engaging them. What frightened her a little was the way the bugs weren’t trying to outflank them, they were just boring straight in, single-mindedly focused on the four women who stood between the horde and the colonists.

“AUTOMATIC FIRE!” Astrid cried as she switched her selector to full automatic and started to hose down the advancing bugs.

More bugs tumbled and skidded to there deaths as the heavy rounds ripped them apart. Watching as her rifle recoiled into her shoulder, Astrid saw bugs literally explode as the high velocity rounds touched them, but still it wasn’t enough. Swapping her magazine again, Astrid felt the last two full magazines in her pouches and realised that everyone else must be getting low.

“FALL BACK BY TWOS!” Astrid ordered, “BRANDI, KANDI GO!”

Firing a last burst each, the two girls turned and sprinted away from the bugs; they stopped fifty or so yards back and took up new firing positions.

“LEA!” Astrid yelled, “GO!”

Firing off a controlled burst at a group of bugs who were getting a little too close, Astrid watched them fall before turning and following Lea to where the other girls now stood firing at the bugs and attempting to slow their advance.

Stopping next to Brandi and Kandi, Astrid gasped a little as she brought her rifle back to her shoulder. Heck, she thought as she tried to control her breathing, she was much more unfit than she’d realised. Taking a deep breath, Astrid steadied her aim and started to fire again, seconds later he magazine ran dry. Swapping round her magazines she realised she now had one spare plus maybe a few rounds in a couple of her used mags; no doubt every one else was in the same position.

“BRANDI, KANDI GO!” Astrid called again; once more the two cute girls fired off a last burst each and headed for the rear.

“Lea!” Astrid glanced over to her section-mate, “How are you for rounds?”

“Low!” Lea replied between bursts of fire.

“How low?” Astrid persisted.

“Very!” Lea stopped firing and changed mags, “Last mag!”

“GO!” Astrid ordered.

“But…”

“I said GO!” Astrid sensed Lea running for the rear as she fired into the advancing bugs.

Freck, she’d always wanted to get into combat; how did the saying go? Careful what you wish for it might happen? Yeah that was it. The closest bugs were about twenty-five yards away now, if she stopped firing they’d be on her in seconds. A couple of short bursts cut the bugs down but they were soon replaced by another pack. The bugs were so close now she could see them as individuals, she could see the damage her rounds where doing, she could hear the angry hiss each bug made as it died. But worse she could hear the strange sound their jaws made as they opened and closed; a sound like a large pair of scissors opening and closing.

“Oh freck!” Astrid moaned as her magazine ran dry, she felt hot tears run down her face as she fitted her last full magazine, she didn’t want to die, not here on this dusty crap-hole of a planet, not now.

A sound like the biggest, loudest thunderclap that she’d every heard seemed to split the air, it even made the bugs hesitate in their headlong charge. Looking up into the sky, Astrid saw lines of bright, white light flash through the sky towards her, she knew what this was and she knew she was going to die.

“OOOOOOOOOH! SHIT!” Astrid screamed as she forgot about shooting bugs and dropped to the ground.

Hugging the soil for all she was worth, Astrid felt more than heard the world start to explode around her. Tossed about like a rag doll in a nightmare of explosions and expecting to die any second, Astrid didn’t at first notice that the bombardment had finished. Instead or the unbelievable noise and the bright flashes that left dancing purple dots in front of her closed eyes, there was now silence and darkness and a heavy weight on her chest. Deciding, that she must be dead, Astrid lay there and tried to get comfortable with the idea of not existing.

Slowly her numbed mind started to feed her information and began to question her assumptions. Like; if she was dead and didn’t exist anymore, why could she still feel something on her chest and why did she still register that it was dark. There really was only one answer, her own assumption that she was dead was highly overrated and she was in fact alive. Realising that there was sand in her nose and mouth and it was getting hard to breath, Astrid started to try and sit up, but the weight on her chest was holding her down…and it hurt!

“Over here!” the muffled voice came to Astrid’s ears just as she was opening her eyes and blinking them clear of the sand that still threatened to blind her; it was then that she noticed the black chitin-like skin of the bug that lay on top of her.

“AAGH!” Astrid cried as she tried to push the creature off her; her own voice sounded muffled and far away and she realised she must have been partially deafened by all the explosions.

“‘Ere!” another far away voice called and Astrid felt someone pull the bug off her.

“Kandi?” Astrid looked up as the short blonde girl struggled to move the bug’s carcass.

“Yeah that’s me,” the girl grinned at Astrid before turning to call to someone else, “come give me an ‘and will ya?”

Suddenly there seemed to be a lot of helping hands all over the place and the dead bug was quickly moved.

“Hey-hey Astrid?”

Astrid turned to look into Lea’s concerned face.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Eeeerm,” Astrid found she had to think really hard about this before saying, “three?”

“Close enough,” Lea smiled relieved, “freck girl, what the hell do you think you’re doing? Trying to be a hero or something?”

“W-what happened?” Astrid asked as she winced, she was beginning to get back in touch with her body only to find that several bits of it hurt, “Oooh!” Astrid groaned, “My boobs hurt!

“Not surprised,” Lea pulled open Astrid’s shirt and had a look inside, “nothing serious, just bruises…”

“Nothing serious?” Astrid was apt to disagree, “You’re not sitting where I am…now what happened?”

“Orbital bombardments wot ‘appened, luv,” Brandi or possibly Kandi informed her.

“Yeah,” Lea nodded her head, “someone musta called in an orbital strike…wiped the bugs off the face of the planet…” Lea hesitated for half a heart beat, “…or at least this little piece of it.”

“We thought you was a gonna,” Brandi (it was definitely Brandi, Astrid told herself) explained, “thought you was buckin’ for a medal or somefing.”

“No medals,” Astrid tried to push herself to her feet but failed, “give me a hand guys,” helping hands took hold of her arms and hauled her to her feet, “where’s my rifle?”

“Here,” Kandi handed Astrid her rifle after brushing the worst of the sand and bug blood off it.

Now she was standing upright Astrid could see what had happened around her. For about two hundred yards all around where she and her friends stood the ground had been ripped apart and looked like some sort of crater field on the moon. All over the ground, in the holes and between them lay the bodies of dead bugs or at least pieces of dead bugs. Lifting her eyes from the scene of destruction towards the hill from where the bugs had come, she could see more craters and dead bugs.

“We’re safe for now,” Lea told her, “but we’ve got to move, you okay with that?”

“Yeah, sure,” Astrid nodded and reached for her canteen; taking a mouthful of water she swilled it around her mouth to get rid of the sand before spitting it out and taking a drink. “Okay,” she took a deep breath and found she could hear again, time to take charge, “where’s the colonists and how are we for ammo?”

“Colonists are about two hundred yards that-a-way,” Lea pointed off to the north-east; “Judy and Sam have got them corralled in a depression.”

“Rounds?” Astrid asked as put her canteen back in its pouch.

“Not so good,” Lea replied soberly, she indicated the three rescuers, “we’re down to twenty-five or thirty rounds each, you?”

“About the same,” Astrid nodded and started to check her kit.

“Even if we get back to Sam and Judy and redistribute our rounds, that still probably only gives us fifty rounds apiece.”

Astrid looked around at all the dead bugs; they’d not been able to stop them with almost a full load of ammo each. Now they were down to about a sixth of what they should have they wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Okay, people,” Astrid called, “let’s get outta here and back to the civ-pop.”

Taking a step, Astrid stumbled but was held upright by Lea’s hand on her arm.

“Thanks,” Astrid gave her friend a weak smile, “still a little…”

“Shook up?” Lea asked.

“Yeah that’s about it,” regaining her balance Astrid started to head towards where Lea had indicated the colonists were hiding.

“Y’know what?” Lea asked as she walked along side Astrid with Brandi and Kandi watching their rear.

“What?”

“It’s times like this I wish I’d taken that judge up on the ‘enforced colonist’ option,” Lea held her rifle resting it on her forearms.

“What!?” Astrid turned to her friend and grinned, “And miss all this?”

“Yeah, ‘spose,” Lea shrugged, “Travel to strange, exotic worlds, meet fascinating new people and life forms…and kill them!”

“Or be killed by them,” Astrid pointed out.

“Hey!” Lea looked at Astrid in shock, “I knew there was something off, the recruiting sergeant never mentioned anything about them killing me!”

0=0=0=0

Just as Astrid and her group arrived at the hollow where Sam and Judy had the colonists crouching down in cover, she saw Sergeant Burden arrive from the north. After pausing to check on the colonist he made his way over to where Astrid stood as she organised redistributing the sections ammunition; Lea had been right they now had no more than two full magazines each.

“Okay Astrid,” Sergeant Burden walked over and stood in front of her, “report.”

Astrid spent the next couple of minutes explaining what she and her section had been doing.

“Okay,” Burden nodded his head slowly, “that’s all fine and brave, but why didn’t you call for back up?”

“I…?” Astrid stood there with her mouth open, she couldn’t think why she’d not called for help other than forgetting all about doing it.

“Never mind,” Burden told her in a soft voice, “you did pretty good without help…”

“I nearly got myself killed,” Astrid pointed out as she told herself how stupid she’d been; she could have got them all killed.

“Yeah, well, that comes with the territory sometimes,” Burden pointed out, “but from what I’m hearing you did pretty well for a combat virgin.”

“Yeah right,” Astrid didn’t really believe Burden; she told herself that he was only being nice about her screwing up because he wanted to get between her legs.

“Look, here’s the situation,” Burden placed his hand on Astrid’s shoulder and led her over to a small depression where they could sit down and get out their maps. “Looks like all the bugs on the planet have taken it into their heads to eat us, or at least drive us off world.”

“Why?” despite herself Astrid was interested.

“No one said,” Burden shrugged, “maybe they don’t like the way we smell or something. Anyway, there’s bugs all over and there’s a hell of a lot more of them than anyone expected.”

“You’re tellin’ me,” Astrid agreed.

“Orders are to collect up all the colonists we can and head for the evacuation points,” Burden pointed to his map, “once there we’ll be picked up by shuttles…”

“I can hear that big ‘but’ coming,” Astrid pointed out.

“Yeah,” Burden sighed tiredly, “ _But_ , there’s only one ship in orbit and it only has has a dozen shuttles.”

“Great,” Astrid shook her head, this sounded like another ‘Snafu’, ‘situation normal; all fucked up’!

“As there’s not enough room on the ship we’ll be ferried to an island that’s free of bugs,” Burden gestured vaguely to the west, “where we’ll wait for the relief force to turn up.”

“And how long will that take?” Astrid wanted to know.

“Couple of months,” Burden admitted.

“Great,” Astrid muttered.

“But I have got some good news,” Burden tried to lighten the atmosphere, “we should get an ammo replen in about,” he glanced at his watch, “five or ten minutes, double loads for everyone. There’s drones out spraying the bugs with Tanglefoot and we should get at least some orbital support.”

“Cool,” Astrid agreed.

“But I’ve saved the best ‘til last,” a big grin split Burden’s face, “I regret to have to have to inform you that Mr Henderson got himself killed.”

“He did!?” Astrid smiled brightly, “Oh how sad…how?”

“Fell into a bug hole and got himself eaten,” Burden explained.

“OOOH!” Astrid managed to stop herself from cheering, she really hadn’t liked Henderson, “Oh that’s nasty,” she said with a grin, “not a good way to go.”

“Yeah, awful,” Burden agreed deadpan, “I’ll make something up about how he died bravely leading his men,” Burden noticed the look of incredulity on Astrid’s face, “for his folks y’know?”

“Yeah, sure, got it,” Astrid agreed, “so that means you're platoon leader?”

“That’s about the size of it,” Burden nodded, “so I want no more goofin’ off or suicidal heroics, okay?”

“Sure thing…do I call you ‘sir’ now?” Astrid asked.

“Only if you want to spend the rest of your military career digging latrines,” Burden pointed out.

“Right, ‘Sarge’ it is then,” Astrid got up as Burden climbed to his feet, “I’ll pass along the happy news to the guys.”

“You do that,” Burden agreed, “and Astrid, about the civ-pop…”

“What about them?” Astrid wanted to know.

“Best if you just tell them ‘rescue ships are on the way’,” Burden pointed out, “they don’t need to know about the other stuff, okay?”

“Okay, Sarge,” Astrid agreed.

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

Kneeling in the grass, Astrid clutched her rifle tightly as she watched the bugs approach. There were about four or five packs of them loping across the plain towards her position. However, they were still a good five hundred yards off so she didn’t tell Judy or Sam to open fire. In the distance she could hear rifle and SAW fire as the other squads engaged their own targets. Every now and again there’d be a *WHOOSH-BANG!* as the RPG team saw a target valuable enough to use one of their limited supply of rockets on. Glancing back towards the bugs, Astrid guessed they were now about four hundred yards away, she’d not tell anyone to fire until they were at about two-hundred yards.

After recovering from the effects of the orbital bombardment (Astrid’s ears were still ringing but otherwise she was surprisingly unhurt), Astrid had rejoined her section and they had continued to herd the colonists to the north-east. After about a mile Sergeant Burden had called a halt and the platoon had taken up defensive positions around the colonists. The bugs had eased off their attacks so it seemed like a good time to rest and reorganise.

Taking the opportunity to swap people around, Astrid found her section being given a more combat orientated role. Instead of being left to guard the colonists (this job was now the responsibility of some of the walking wounded) her unit was redeployed as an active rifle section. Astrid wasn’t sure how she felt about this; sure she’d wanted to see some combat and she’d had her wish granted. But to be stuck in the frontline like this, she wasn’t so happy about, after all she and her section were just glorified truck drivers. Yes, they’d all been given combat training, but never in her wildest dreams had she expected to have to use those skills. 

The most she’d ever thought she’d ever be faced with was a few rounds directed at her truck or a minor ambush. Quite happy with the idea of having to fire off some rounds to protect herself and her truck, Astrid wasn’t so sure about all this ‘life or death’ stuff. However, needs must, or at least that’s what she told herself.

Looking towards the bugs again, Astrid now saw they were about two-fifty yards off; it was time to get ready. Looking to her right she saw Judy kneeling about ten yards away; glancing over her shoulder she saw Sam lying on top of a slight rise.

“Okay people,” Astrid called calmly, “get ready, another fifty yards or so and we take ‘em.”

Watching the bugs getting closer, Astrid found herself trying to puzzle out the bug tactics. They appeared to launch their attacks in pulses, they’d come right at you with little thought about trying to outflank or taking a more covered route. Then once they’d launched an attack they just kept coming until they were all dead or they’d overrun your position.

“Ready!” Astrid called as she hauled back on the charging handle of her rifle, “Okay stay cool…” Astrid sighted on one of the lead bugs, “…wait for my word…”

Just as Astrid was about to give the order to fire something saucer shaped and grey swooped down out of the sky towards the bugs. Relaxing the hold on her rifle, Astrid looked up to follow the drone’s course with her eye. The drone was travelling at less than a hundred miles-per-hour probably more like eighty. It flew over the bugs at around fifty feet or so and sprayed them with some bright green mist-like liquid. As soon as the first droplets hit the bugs they lost all control of their limbs and fell sprawling helplessly in the grass unable to move other than to trash about feebly.

Laughing for the first time that day, Astrid realised this must be the Tanglefoot gas she’d heard about. Developed when humanity had first arrived on Yanlor and no one was sure whether the bugs were dangerous or not. The gas had been designed to be ineffective to humans and incapacitate bugs, it sure looked as if it worked. Getting to her feet, Astrid watched as the drone finished spraying the bugs in front of her and flew off to the west, no doubt to give another swarm of bugs a dose of Tanglefoot.

“Okay guys!” Astrid called as she brought her rifle to her shoulder, “remember single shots…take ‘em!”

Firing steadily, Astrid, Sam and Judy killed the helpless bugs with single shots. Yes the gas would take the bugs out, but it didn’t kill them and it only had a limited effect. After about five or ten minutes the bugs would recover and be no worse for their adventure. But, in the mean time, bugs that were thrashing about on the ground unable to move or kill were much easier to shoot than ones charging at you intent on your destruction.

0=0=0=0

Looking over to the north-west, Astrid saw that the local sun was slowly heading towards the horizon. With the planet’s axial tilt added to the fact that in the northern hemisphere it was summer, Astrid knew that it would be awhile yet before it was actually dark. Would the bugs keep attacking in the night? Now that was an interesting thought. The accepted wisdom was that the bugs didn’t like the chill of the night and retreated into their bug holes around dusk. However, the same accepted wisdom had said that the bugs were docile and weren’t a threat to mankind. These little thoughts didn’t convince Astrid that she’d be having a quiet night.

After the drone and its gas had done its job, Astrid and her team had shot all the bugs that they could see and then headed back to where Lea and the girls were holding a section of gully. They’d hunkered down in the shelter of the gully and snatched some time to eat some rations and deal with their other ‘personal needs’; in other words they’d dug themselves ‘cat holes’ and taken the opportunity to take a pee or take a dump in the sand!

Refreshed and comfortable again, Astrid listened in on the platoon net as Sergeant Burden sent a section south to see if there was a way out of their present mess in that direction. Unfortunately the section had soon bumped into trouble; they’d found several large depressions that had looked the perfect place to stash the colonists. But no sooner had they found the depressions than a recon drone reported a large area of plain just to the east of the depressions that was riddled with bug holes. It appeared that the bugs could sense the recon drone from inside their holes and they were soon crawling out of their homes and started to search for any tasty humans that might have come their way. Very soon the southern section was fighting for their lives as the bugs swarmed around them. Unable to hold against such overwhelming numbers the section had started a fighting retreat. By now the platoon’s RPG team had used up all its HE rockets and Burden was unwilling to use their only Mini-nuke to support the squads retreat. So, the section was forced to fight for their lives unassisted until it got closer to the main force.

They’d been resting in the gully for nearly an hour before Sergeant Burden called Astrid up on her section frequency.

“Astrid?” Burden sounded tired.

“Receiving,” Astrid replied and realised just how tired she must sound, they’d been fighting nearly all day and it was starting to take its toll.

“Look, Astrid there’s what looks like a large habitat about a mile and a half east of you position…”

Astrid got out her map and looked at it, sure enough there was what looked like a group of habitat units, “Got ‘em,” she reported back.

“…right, I want you to take your section and check them out,” Burden explained, “make sure there’s no more colonists skulking in them and see if the way’s clear of bugs.”

“Roger that,” Astrid replied as she folded away her map, “any news of that rescue shuttle?”

“Nothing good,” Burden admitted, “looks like it won’t get to us ‘til tomorrow morning…and Astrid…”

“Yeah?”

“Look out for yourself, okay?” Burden paused before speaking again, “Look you’re gonna be out there on your own I can’t spare anyone to watch your back, but on the good side…”

“There’s a ‘good side’?” Astrid asked her voice full of the disbelief she felt.

“Yeah,” Burden gave a tired laugh, “if you see anything out there the chances are it’s a bug so you can shoot it no worries!”

“Gee, thanks Sarge!” Astrid laughed resignedly.

“Okay, get moving and like I say, watch your back, kid, Burden out.”

“Roger that,” Astrid called back, “Smith out.”

0=0=0=0

Walking at the front of her section, Astrid watched her elongated shadow stretch out in front of her. The sun was well down behind her causing her shadow to stretch out towards the darkening eastern horizon where the sky had turned a deep dark blue. For a moment Astrid remember how she’d had a blouse that colour when she’d been about twelve, her mother had bought it for her before…well before her life had turned to crap and she’d started on the path that had led her here.

Glancing to her rear, Astrid checked on the position of her section-mates and also on the position of the sun. Estimating that it would be another half-an-hour before it set and another half-an-hour before it was really dark, she sighed. For the next hour they were going to have trouble seeing anything. Their night vision aids would be useless until it was almost full dark and good old ‘eyeball, mark one’ wouldn’t be much help either. Dusk and dawn were still the most dangerous times of the day. The human eye and so far any vision aid that science had devised was unable to adapt quickly enough between a light sky and a dark earth to be of much use. Perhaps if they had those new thermal imagers that were being issued to the combat arms it would make a difference; but it would be a long, long time before mere truck drivers got any fancy kit like that.

For just a moment, Astrid found herself feeling very bitter. Why shouldn’t she have the most up-to-date kit? Why couldn’t women go into combat? They’d kicked butt today and just look at the mission she’d been given now; this was a fighting patrol to find an escape route for the entire force. Hey, if that wasn’t an important combat role then what was? Astrid found herself thinking that once she got off this dust bowl she was going to transfer out of motor transport, find herself a posting that gave her a chance of a more combat orientated career path.

Her thoughts almost brought her to a complete halt, Astrid did in fact pause for a moment. What she thinking of? Only yesterday (was it really only twenty-four hours ago? It felt like a lifetime) she’d been wondering who she’d end up with as a life partner, how many kids she’d have and all girlie stuff like that. How she was thinking about the best ways of seeing more combat. Whatever, she sighed heavily, this was all stuff to think about later, assuming there was a later and she wasn’t eaten by a bug in the next half hour.

“Halt,” Astrid whispered and lifted her left hand in the air to signal everyone to stop, “Lea, to me!”

Crouching down in the grass, Astrid took her map out of her pocket and watched as the rest of the section hunkered down and turned outwards so they could spot trouble before it spotted them. Just for a moment a feeling of intense pride in her guys washed over her, only yesterday none of them would have thought of doing what they were doing now. Lea appeared out of the dusk and knelt down next to Astrid.

“Look,” Astrid pointed to her map; with the light almost gone it was hard to make out but the two women could still just make out enough detail to make it worthwhile having the map in front of them. “The habitats should be over that ridge,” Astrid pointed to where a long, low ridge blocked their view to the east. “There’s some lakes to the north and hills to the south, further east it looks like more plain. Looks like this might be a good place to hold up for the night.”

“Roger that,” Lea agreed with a nod, “any bugs trying to get to the main force are likely to have to go by the habitat.”

“That was my thinking,” Astrid agreed, “we can fort up and block the easy route between the water and the lakes. Now what we’ll do is this,” Astrid began to explain, “you take Brandi and Kandi and set up in ‘overwatch’ on the ridge here. You should be able to use your night glasses by the time we move in. You watch my back while I take Sam and Judy down into the ville and check it out.” Astrid noticed the look on Lea’s face, “You got a problem with that?”

“Look, boss,” Lea said in a low whisper, “I mean Sam and Judy? Okay Judy’s not so bad but Sam? Not the best soldier in the galaxy.”

“Yeah I know,” Astrid realised that this had been the first time Lea, or indeed anyone had called her ‘boss’, “but its what we’ve got. I trust you to save my ass if needs be. The busty-bandits are the best shots we’ve got and I’ve gotta be the one to go down and check that place out so…”

“Yeah okay,” Lea agreed reluctantly, “just don’t get ya ass shot off, right? I mean I don’t want to end up in charge.”

“Okay,” Astrid smiled, “just so you don’t have to take command I’ll try not to get killed, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Right lets do it,” Astrid got to her feet and signalled for everyone else to stand up.

“Judy, Sam, to me,” Astrid called softly, “Lea you take your people over to the left flank there and call when you’re in position.”

“On it, Boss,” Lea called back before collecting up Brandi and Kandi and moving out.

“Where are they going?” Sam wanted to know a little too loudly.

“SHHH!” Hissed Astrid, “Keep it down…”

“Why? The bugs can’t understand us…” Sam continued.

“But they can hear us!” Judy snapped.

“Oh!” Sam suddenly went very quiet and looked around nervously, “Sorry,” she whispered.

“Right,” Astrid started to explain the mission, “just over that rise is a habitat, we’re going down to check it out and Lea, Brandi and Kandi are going to watch our backs, okay?”

“Why can’t…OWW!” Sam hopped about on one leg as she rubbed her ankle.

“Shut yer gob, huir!” Judy snapped before turning and smiling innocently at Astrid.

“Why me?” Astrid muttered to the stars that were just appearing in the night sky, “Okay guys lets move, quick and silent.”

Leading her team over the ridge line, Astrid paused and crouched down once she was fairly sure that she wasn’t sky-lining herself on the ridge.

“Glasses,” she ordered in a loud whisper; fumbling with one of her pouches, she pulled the night vision aids out and fitted them to the clip on the front of her helmet.

Flipping the glasses down over her eyes Astrid switched them on and watched as the world swam into green and black focus. She could now see fairly clearly out to about five-hundred yards. Beyond that she could see lights and shapes but no detail. About one-hundred yards to her front she could see the habitat. It was quite a big, well ordered looking place with enough room for maybe fifty colonists. Her night glasses flared a little as they picked up the light from a few maintenance and security lights around the perimeter, but there was no movement and nothing to suggest that the colonists were still at home.

“Anyone see anything?” Astrid asked.

“No,” replied Judy.

“Nothing,” agreed Sam.

“Okay,” Astrid turned to her section net, “Lea? You in position?”

“We’re firm,” Lea replied, “no sign of life no sign of bugs.”

“Roger that,” Astrid turned her head to look at Judy and Sam, “lets move.”

Getting to her feet, Astrid started to make her way rapidly towards the habitats, her footsteps muffled by the sand made almost no noise. Stopping with her back to what appeared to be an old cargo container, she waited for Judy and Sam to catch up and join her. Once they were all together, Astrid signalled for them to move towards what looked like a main door. Pointing to either side of the door, Astrid watched as Sam and Judy took up covering positions while she advanced cautiously towards the door. The door was big and metal obviously intended to allow vehicle access to the interior of the habitat unit; Astrid guessed that there was a workshop on the other side of the door. It was only when she could look at the door closely that she noticed that it had been welded shut and the weld looked new.

“Listen up everyone,” Astrid spoke urgently over the section net, “looks like there might be someone at home so check your targets before you fire, okay?”

“Roger that,” Lea’s voice came over her earwig.

Both Judy and Sam nodded and gave a ‘thumbs up’ sign to show they understood.

Okay, Astrid looked at the door, if there was someone inside, how was she supposed to get in when all the doors and windows were welded up tight. So, were all the doors and window locked tight? Astrid smiled; bet there was one they’d missed, there was always one. Signalling, ‘follow me’, Astrid led her team around the buildings stopping to check doors and windows as they came to them, all appeared to have been efficiently welded shut. After about five minutes they came to another big door, once again Astrid moved in to check it out.

“Locked but not welded,” Astrid told everyone as she hit the actuator and waited for the door to open, nothing happened. “Judy, can you hot wire the door?”

“Ay coorse Ah can,” Judy gave Astrid a hurt look as she moved in and ripped off the cover to the electronic lock that secured the door.

“Lea,” Astrid whispered into her radio as Judy worked on the door, “Looks like we’re goin’ inside, you might as well come down now, can you see where we are?”

“No,” Lea replied, “but I watched you disappear around a corner I should be able to find you.”

“Good,” Astrid looked to see that Judy had two pieces of wire held in her hands ready to press them together, “we’re goin’ in…”

“Roger that,” Lea said as she signed off.

“Okay,” Astrid nodded to Judy, “open the door…”

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

Standing back, Astrid watched the door slide open over the top of her rifle; she’d not know what she expected, hundreds of bugs maybe or possibly a load of colonists happy to see the army had arrived. What she actually saw was a large loading bay, scattered with wooden crates and plastic cargo pods. The strip lights flickered intermittently to illuminate the scene, of the habitat’s inhabitants there was no sign. Moments later Lea and the girls turned up.

“What you got?” Lea asked as she came to a halt next to Astrid.

“Don’t rightly know,” Astrid admitted as she watched the interior for any hostile signs.

“Maybe the colonists skedaddled already?” Lea suggested.

“Maybe,” Astrid agreed, “anyway we won’t find out standing out here asking damn-fool questions.”

“Hey listen to little Miss Decisive,” Lea smirked.

“Yeah, whatever,” Astrid turned to look at her available forces.

It seemed to her she could leave Judy and Sam out here to guard the door while Lea, the hill girls and herself searched the place. But Sam would probably goof off and Judy would get all tetchy about being outside and they still probably not notice the bugs before they’d had their asses bitten off.

“Okay, listen up!” Astrid called, “There should be a whole bunch of colonists cheering and being real glad we’re here…there ain’t so we better find ‘em, okay?”

There was affirmative agreement of varying enthusiasm from the section.

“So we’re goin’ in there to find ‘em,” Astrid gestured to the building’s interior with her rifle, “search by two’s, stay cool and keep your comms open…” she turned her head to look at Sam, “…and that means no un-necessary chatter, okay?”

“Hey why’re you looking at me?” Sam complained.

“Brandi, Kandi you go together,” Astrid ordered.

“Got-cha,” the two girls replied in chorus.

“Sam go with Lea.” 

Lea gave Astrid a hurt look that said ‘why me?’

“Judy you’re with me,” Astrid waited a moment while everyone sorted themselves out, “okay let’s move.”

Moving into the loading bay, Astrid scanned the room watching for anything that might spring out from behind the stacks of crates and pods. Moving rapidly across the room they came to the door that obviously led into the rest of the complex. Standing to one side of the door with Judy on the other, Astrid glanced back the way they’d come to see the other four members of her section covering the unopened door.

“Okay,” Astrid found herself whispering as she spoke to Judy, “hit it!”

Slapping the door actuator with the palm of her hand Judy watched as the door slide half way open and stopped, she hit the big red button again. The door motors whined but the door didn’t move.

“Ah hink 'at is aw ye gie,” Judy informed everyone quietly.

Pocking her head cautiously around the edge of the door Astrid looked into the corridor beyond. From her position, he could see that the corridor divided into three. Again the lights flicked but she could see definite signs of a struggle. There were pieces of paper littering the floor along with odd pieces of what looked like rag. Taking a deep breath and screwing up her courage, Astrid slipped through the door followed by Judy. Quickly looking left and right Astrid checked the corridors either side of her. Again there were signs of a struggle but no bodies or bugs about to jump out at them.

“Right,” Astrid said into her comms as she advanced slowly down the corridor leading directly away from the door, “I’ve got damage from what looks like small arms fire and maybe seismic charges and…” Astrid bent to examine a brown-ish stain on a piece of rag that looked as if it had once been a shirt, “…and something that maybe blood.”

“Oh freck,” Judy muttered under her breath.

“Okay, the rest of you guys,” Astrid looked back towards the door, “get in here, Lea, Sam go left, Brandi, Kandi go right got that?”

“Roger that,” Lea replied.

“On it,” Kandi called as she led her ‘sister’ through the doorway and disappeared down the right hand corridor.

“Okay let’s take a look down here,” Astrid said quietly.

“Dae we hae tae?” Judy asked as she followed Astrid closely trying to ignore the splashes of what was increasingly likely to be blood on the walls and floor.

“Looks like the bugs got in somehow,” Astrid observed over her comms.

“We’ve got more bullet damage down here,” Lea’s voice came to Astrid’s ears over her comms, “looks like the civ-pop put up a fight.”

Yeah, thought Astrid that made sense. The colonists had obviously been warned that something was wrong because they’d sealed themselves in. From what she’d seen they’d done a pretty good job too, there was no sign of entry on the outside so how had the bugs got in?

0=0=0=0

This, thought Sam, was totally bogus. It was obvious that the colonists had either been eaten by the bugs or run away. So, why were they still searching the place? It must be full dark outside so the bugs should be safely in their holes; everyone knew that bugs didn’t come out at night. They should be shutting the doors and getting ready for a good night’s sleep. Instead they were creeping around this dump looking for bugs that weren’t there.

Coming to the door of another set of colonist accommodation, Sam pushed the door open with the muzzle of her rifle. The door sung open slowly to reveal a small room with a bed up against one wall and a desk against the other. Walking into the room, Sam slung her rifle over her shoulder and sighed. Not that long ago she’d have thought the room was cramped and not very nice. But after eighteen months in the army it looked like a palace to her now. Crossing the room she came to another door, opening it thinking it was a closet or something she found a fresher complete with a real toilet and shower, luxury! 

“Wow!” Sam gazed at the unadulterated opulence of the fresher.

Reaching out her hand she switched on the shower unit, hoping against hope that the water still worked. Almost crying out loud with joy she felt the warm water on her hand.

“YES!” she cheered as she started to pull off her uniform.

It had been a hot and dusty day, she was filthy and who could blame her if she wanted to clean up. This thought stopped Sam dead in her tracks; who could blame her? Astrid would, she’d been acting like a bitch all day ordering people around and taking her ammo away. Looking back into the room, Sam saw she’d left the door open. Hurriedly switching off the shower she quickly retraced her steps, shut the door and slid the bolts into place that secured it from un-wanted visitors.

Leaning her rifle against the wall by the door, Sam took off her helmet and threw it onto the bunk. Next off came her equipment harness and jacket. Sitting on the bed she took off her boots and socks. Okay so she had no clean clothes to put on when she’d finished, but the chance of a shower was too good to miss. Within seconds her trousers and t-shirt came off. Finally her bra and panties joined the rest of her things on the bed and she headed for the shower.

Stepping under the warm water, Sam sighed in near ecstasy as the water ran over her short hair and down across her body cutting through the accumulated sweat and grime of the day. Not wasting any time, she knew she’d be missed eventually; Sam squirted some liquid soap into her hand from a dispenser next to the shower and started to soap herself down.

This was the life, she told herself as she ran her soapy hands over her body, no one to yell at you to hurry up, or complain about what you wore or how long your hair was. She still had four and a half years to do but when she got off this crappy ball of dust she was going to try and get herself a duty where she didn’t have to carry a rifle or wear combat uniform. Maybe get herself a job as driver to a general or something, that would be cool. Any job as a driver back on Terra or one of the older colony worlds would do. At least there’d be no nasty, nightmare monsters to chase after her.

Sensing the fresher door open, Sam turned to see who’d discovered her little secret; she never even got the chance to scream!

0=0=0=0

“Hello India-three sunray this is India-three-four sunray, sitrep over,” Astrid spoke into her comms trying to reach Sergeant Burden, as she waited for a reply she wondered what an ‘India’ was and why it was used to indicate the letter ‘I’.

“India-three sunray receiving,” Burdens voice came loud and clear to her ear, “what y’got for me Astrid?”

“We’ve searched the habitat and no one’s home,” Astrid reported, “looks like there was a fight and the civ-pop either got ate or ran off.”

“Crap,” Burden cursed softly over the link, “how badly damaged are the buildings?”

“Look fine,” Astrid replied, “hardly any damage at all, in fact I can’t work out how the bugs got in…if you could get the platoon over here it’d be a good place to fort up for the night.”

“Roger that,” Burden agreed, “I’ll be at your location in about thirty mikes.”

“Roger,” Astrid acknowledged, “until then I’ll try to find out how the bugs got in, three-four out.”

Just as Astrid was switching her comms back to the section net an angry shout pierced the air, “What the freck?” Astrid grabbed her rifle from off the table where she was lying.

Before she could go anywhere and discover what the heck was going on, Lea dragged a soaking wet and semi naked Private Rispoli into the office that she’d sorta made her HQ.

“What the freck?” Astrid demanded.

“I caught this little bitch taking a shower in one of the colonist quarters,” Lea explained, “Didn’t even think to tell her buddies that the water still worked!”

“Crap, Sam,” Astrid shook her head, “what did you think…”

Astrid never got to finish her sentence as a burst of fire from a corridor over to the right split the night.

“Now what!?” clutching her rifle Astrid headed out of the door followed by Lea.

Running towards the sound of the firing, Astrid demanded to know what was going on.

“BUGS!” came Kandi’s urgent cry over the comms as the rapid fire turned into full automatic, “LOADS ‘n’ LOADS OF BUGS!”

“Hold on we’re coming!” Astrid and Lea picked up the pace using the sound of firing as a directional beacon.

Sliding around a corner Astrid saw Brandi and Kandi retreating backwards down the corridor as they fired on wall to wall and floor to ceiling bugs. In this part of the base the lights were completely out and the strobbing effect of the muzzle flashes made the bugs look even weirder and more vicious that normal.

Turning into the corridor, Astrid and Lea joined their fire to that of the two hill girls. For a moment it looked as if they were going to stop the bugs cold. But there were always more to replace the ones that the rifle bullets chopped to dog meat and rifles needed to be reloaded and ever time the human fire slacked off the bugs gained a little.

“BACK! BACK!” yelled Astrid over the noise of the yammering rifles as they hosed down the bugs that climbed over the dead bodies of their brothers, “GET BACK TO CENTRAL! RETREAT BY TWO’S!”

Once again the four women performed their well practiced method of retreat. First Brandi and Kandi broke off and ran a few yards up the corridor before turning and covering the retreat of Astrid and Lea. In this way they managed to keep the bugs at bay until they got to the door of the central area of the base.

“IN! IN!” Astrid yelled as she stood with her back to the door firing down the corridor at the bugs.

First Kandi ran through the door followed by Lea who turned and using the door as cover added her fire to Astrid’s. Brandi slipped through the door grabbing Astrid as she passed and dragging her in behind her. Just as Astrid cleared the door, Kandi hit the ‘emergency close’ button and the doors slid shut with a loud *CLANG!* neatly chopping off the forearm of a bug as it did so.

“What the freck happen!?” Astrid demanded breathlessly, “One minute there’s no bugs the next there’s thousands!”

“Nest!” Brandi gasped her magnificent breasts heaving up and down under all her equipment.

“Yeah,” agreed Kandi as she sucked great lungfuls of air into her lungs, “there’s a frecking big bug thing dahn there,” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder indicating the way they’d just come, “must be a queen or sumfing it was laying eggs…”

“An’-an’ there was a big frecking ‘ole in the floor,” Brandi added, “wiv loads of bugs crawlin’ out of it…”

“You mean a bug hole?” Lea asked as she took spare clips from the bandolier that hung around her neck and transferred the rounds to her empty magazines.

“NAH!” the two girls said together, “BIGGER!”

“Bigger?” Astrid asked in a small voice, she’d told Burden there were no bugs here, now he’d be walking into a horde of the damn things, she’d need to call him and warn him off.

“Much bigger,” Brandi agreed.

“Much-much bigger,” Kandi added for emphasis.

“How…?” Lea watched the girls as her thumbs pressed rounds into magazines without any input from her brain.

“Three, four yards,” Brandi explained in a low voice.

“At least,” Kandi added.

“Crap…” Astrid would have said more but the sound of bugs beating against the door stopped her, “…bugger!” she said instead, “Find a way outta here, NOW! Kandi watch the door!”

AS the three other women started to search for another exit, Kandi watched the door, the bugs were hitting it so hard it was starting to bend and bow inwards. This type of door wasn’t made for this sort of punishment and it was only a matter of time before the bugs broke it out of its mounting and got in.

“‘urry up, you guys!” Kandi clutched hold of her rifle and mentally counted her still full magazines; four, she had four and what was in her rifle that should be enough, shouldn’t it?

“Found something,” Lea’s voice called from across the room.

Glancing over her shoulder, Kandi caught a glimpse of Brandi, Astrid and Lea pushing some wrecked furniture away from what looked like another door. Looking back to the door in front of her Kandi could see that the bugs had bent it out of shape and it was coming free from its mounting.

“MOVE IT GUYS!” she yelled; even as she spoke she saw an arm belonging to a bug snake through a gap made between the door and the doorframe.

Firing Kandi saw the arm disintegrate in a fan of blood, bone and flesh. It was more or less at this point that the door decided to give up the unequal struggle and tried to open. Fortunately it only opened about a foot or so due to it being bent out of shape, but the bugs still managed to squeeze through the gap. Shooting the first few bugs to try and gain access, Kandi managed to block the door up again. But only for a second, the bugs simply tore their dead comrades apart in their eagerness to get at the trapped humans.

Listening to Kandi’s increased rate of fire, Astrid and Lea heaved the last desk out of the way. Trying the door, Astrid found it locked.

“Judy!” she called without thinking, looking around she couldn’t see her old buddy, “Where’s Judy?” she demanded of Lea.

“Don’t know!” Lea called back, “stand clear!”

Lea raised her rifle as Astrid took a step away from the door. Putting a couple of rounds into the electronic lock both women were relieved to see the door open and there not be hundreds of bugs waiting for them on the other side.

“BRANDI, KANDI WE’RE OUTTA HERE!” Astrid yelled as she followed Lea through the door.

Watching as the two hill girls retreated across the room as the more and more bugs pushed their way in, Astrid raised her rifle to give covering fire.

“MOVE IT! MOVE IT!” Lea called as she tried to draw a bead on the hissing, snapping bugs as they started to swarm across the room.

Almost reaching the door Kandi turned to give her friend covering fire only to see a bug drag Brandi off her feet.

“NOOOOO!” Kandi fired and drilled the bug through the head allowing Brandi to regain her feet for a moment.

Stumbling towards the door, Brandi reached out for her sister only to be dragged away by more bugs before anyone could get to her. Screaming as the bugs bit into her legs and arms with their long sharp teeth Brandi was dragged under a mass of hissing bugs. Standing in the doorway Kandi fired on full auto into the struggling mass of angry bugs killing them and her friend.

“GRAB HER!” Astrid told Lea as she sprayed the advancing bugs with fire.

Reaching into the bug filled room; Lea caught hold of Kandi’s equipment harness and pulled her to safety. Once Kandi and Lea were in the room, Astrid shut the door, it slid closed with agonising slowness.

“That won’t stop them for long,” Astrid gasped, “we better get outta here now…Kandi are you with us?”

“Yeah,” the hill girl whispered as the tears rolled down her dirty cheeks, “I’m with you…”

“Look,” Astrid gathered the short girl into her arms, “we’ll give Brandi a good send off once we’re outta here…she was our buddy too.”

“Yeah I know,” Kandi pulled herself free of Astrid’s embrace, “but she was my ‘one’, my one girl in-in all the world…”

“Yeah,” Astrid was only just realising that the two hill girls had been more than just friends, “okay I get that, so let’s go kill some bugs for her!”

“Yeah right,” Kandi agreed as she clutched her rifle across her chest.

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

“JUDY!”

“Whit!?” after coming into the room on her way back to central, Judy found herself looking down the muzzles of three rifles.

“Where the heck have you been?” Astrid demanded as she lowered her weapon, “We nearly shot you…I thought you’d been eaten or something.”

“Eaten?” Judy looked from one friend to another as if they’d gone insane, “I-I went to the lavvy,” she gestured over her shoulder with her thumb before asking, “Whit is gonnae oan? Whaur is Brandi and Sam?”

“Brandi’s dead,” Astrid replied, “Sam’s missing and we’re surrounded by bugs.”

“But bugs dinnae come it at nicht,” Judy insisted.

“Tell that to Brandi,” Kandi snarled in a low voice.

“Oh!” Judy took a step back from the short hill girl and noticed the tear tracks down her face for the first time, “Oh dear, I’m sorry Kandi,” she took a couple of steps towards the blonde before giving her a hug, “Ah ken ye waur special friends.”

“Did everyone know those two were sapphists or was just me that didn’t notice?” Astrid asked Lea quietly.

“Tell you later,” Lea shrugged, “now, how about getting outta here?”

“Yeah, right,” Astrid glanced at the door they’d entered the room by; so far the bugs weren’t attacking it, but that wouldn’t last long.

Looking around the room the only exit that Astrid could see was the door that Judy had just come through.

“Where does that go?” Astrid demanded, “we’ve gotta get outta her like _now_!”

“Erm,” Judy let go of Kandi and tried to remember what she’d seen, “Thaur is a service corridur doon tae th' washroom wi' a coople ay doors leadin' aff it, Ah didn’t swatch tae see waur they went.”

“Okay this way,” Astrid pointed to the corridor, “it’s not like we’ve got much choice.”

The four women filed down the corridor closing the door behind them, opening the first door they found a cleaning closet; the second opened into a store room.

“Damn!” Astrid snapped after looking around the room, “No way out!”

“Look,” Kandi pointed upwards, “a skylight!”

Looking up at the ceiling, Astrid smiled, there was indeed a skylight that hadn’t been covered by a metal plate, the colonists must have forgotten about it. Hurriedly clearing boxes of stationary from the shelf units that filled the room, Astrid and her squad built an add-hoc ladder up to the skylight. Being the first to climb up the unstable ladder Lea found she couldn’t open the window.

“It won’t budge!” she called down desperately.

“We’ll have to shoot it out,” Astrid got her weapon ready, “get down from there Lea.”

“Won’t 'at attract th' bugs?” Judy asked bring all action in the room to a halt as everyone stood and stared at her, “Ah am jist askin', Ah pure techt th' bugs hae bin bonnie whieest thes lest wee while.”

“She’s right,” Lea agreed as she climbed back down onto the floor.

“Screw that!” Kandi lifted her rifle and pointed it at the skylight; before anyone could say or do anything she’d fired a burst and smashed the heavy duty Perspex of the skylight. “We can’t stay in here for ever!”

“She’s right,” Lea agreed as she started up the shelves after the hill girl.

“Judy, go!” Astrid pushed her buddy towards the ladder as she turned to face the door; she’d heard something like bugs ripping through the thin partition doors, “Move it Judy!” Astrid called as she heard the sound of bug feet on concrete and their angry hissing as the bugs swarmed into the corridor outside the room.

What to do, Astrid asked herself as she looked to see how far Judy had got, if she fired now it would probably just bring the bugs through the door fast than if she’d stayed quiet. Putting her foot on the lowest part of the shelf-ladder, Astrid heard the door start to splitter behind her as the bugs started to rip their way through and into the room.

“Crap!” Astrid looked up to see Judy had finally cleared the top of the ladder, she started to climb while keeping one eye on the door, it was already splinted and she could see the clawed hand of a bug reaching through to her. “BUGS!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Scrambling up the ladder, Astrid reached the top just as the first bug burst into the room. No sooner was it in that it started up the ladder as it nest mates crowded into the room behind it. Leaning over the edge of the broken skylight, Kandi fired a long burst into the storeroom knocking the lead bug off the ladder and slaughtering half a dozen more that had been following it. As usual more bugs appeared and climbed over the bodies of their fellows in an attempt to get at the humans on the roof.

“LEAVE IT!” Astrid cried as Kandi emptied her magazine into the advancing bugs, “EVERYBODY RUN!”

Grabbing hold of Kandi who seemed reluctant to leave off killing bugs, Astrid dragged her after Lea and Judy as they headed off across the roof between the air-con units and water tanks.

“India-three-sunray, this is India-three-four-sunray, urgent message, over!” Astrid spoke into her comms unit as calmly as she could as she ran, jumping over pipes, ducts and power cables.

“Astrid!” Sergeant Burden’s reply came almost immediately, “Where the heck have you been!?”

“Bugs Sarge, thousands of them!” Astrid explained as the four women took shelter behind a comms array, “There all over the habitat there’s some sort of big bug hole under the place and one of my people said she saw something like a ‘queen-bug’ or something…”

“Okay, Astrid calm down…” Burden began.

“CALM DOWN!?” Astrid screamed, “I’m surrounded by thousands of bugs and you’re telling me to CALM DOWN!?”

“Look there can’t be that many bugs we’ve been killing them all day,” Burden pointed out.

Before Astrid could disabuse him of this fact, Lea pointed over the edge of the roof which was only about six feet away.

“Oh shit!” Astrid said quietly as she saw what Lea had seen.

The area around the habitat was alive with bugs their black chitinous skins shinning blackly in the star light.

“Ian,” Astrid said softly into her comes, “there’s thousands of them coming from under the habitat units and they’re all heading your way.”

“Roger that,” Burden replied, “wait one…” the comms went dead for a couple of long minutes.

“Guys,” Astrid turned to her friends, “look for a way out, will ya?”

Judy and Lea crawled to the edge of the roof and tried to find a direction that wasn’t swarming with bugs. While this was going on Astrid and Kandi kept a look out for the bugs that had followed them up onto the roof; so far there was no sign of them. Either they’d lost track of their human prey or they’d got something more important to do.

“Astrid?” Burden’s voice in her earwig startled her for a moment.

“Still here,” Astrid replied.

“Look,” Astrid heard Burden take a deep breath, “there’s an orbital nuclear strike coming in on your position in ten minutes, can you get outta there?”

“Don’t know,” Astrid looked at her friends pleading silently with her eyes for them to find a route out.

“Look,” Burden continued a moment later, “the strikes gonna come in whether you’re there or not, these big bug holes have been popping up all over the place. The only way to plug them is to drop a nuke on them.”

“Oh crap,” Astrid replied.

“If you can get to my location,” Burden spoke again, “the rescue shuttle will be here in thirty…”

“About freckin’ time!” Astrid snapped, the shuttle had been expected ages ago; now it was on its way it looked as if she was going to miss it because she was going to be incinerated. “Look, I’ll try and get us outta here if I didn’t…” Astrid didn’t know what to say, “…well,” she grinned to herself, “it might have been fun, y’know?”

“I know,” Burden agreed, there wasn’t much else for him to say, “luck, Astrid.”

“And you, India-three-four-sunray, out.” Pausing for just a second to get something out of her eye, Astrid looked at her friends, “we’ve got less that ten minutes before we’re radioactive toast, tell me there’s a way out.”

“Thaur looks loch thaur is a path clear thes way,” Judy pointed to the south-west.

“Cool,” Astrid climbed to her feet and trotted the couple of yards to the roof’s edge.

Sure enough there were only a few bugs wandering across the grass in the starlight, if they could get down from the roof and run up the ridgeline in time they should be safe. After all, the navy wouldn’t use a city-killer nuke on a bug hole…would they? However time was marching on, if they didn’t move soon it wouldn’t matter what size nuke the navy used, they’d just be ash floating on the wind.

Looking down, Astrid saw that it was about a twelve foot drop from the roof to the ground. To be honest it didn’t matter how far it was down they had to go, they probably only had six or seven minutes before the navy dropped their bomb.

“GO!” Astrid pushed Judy towards the roof edge as she got down herself and slipped over the side of the building. 

Letting herself down on her arms, Astrid saw Kandi jump and land in the sand next to the building. Judy sort of fell off the roof and landed in a heap next to her and Lea sat on the edge of the roof before pushing off and landing gracefully a few feet away from her.

“Everyone okay?” Astrid called, there were nods and muttered reassurances that they were fine from the rest of the squad. “Okay then, let’s go!”

Running towards the ridgeline, Astrid calculated that they had about five minute before they were standing in a nuclear fireball, she stepped up the pace a little. As if the threat of nuclear destruction wasn’t enough the nearby bugs started to notice them and moved to intercept. Soon the women had to pause to fire at individual bugs as they closed. About half way up the slope and with only two or three minutes before almost certain death, Astrid turned to spray a group of advancing bugs with fire. In the bright starlight she could see the bug horde making it way over the ridge to the east of her; she also saw a great swarm break off from the main group and turn to head towards her little force.

“Give me a break would ya?” Astrid demanded of the universe.

Turning, Astrid tried to forget about the bugs, if the bugs caught up with them it would be at about the same time as the bomb dropped so either way it was over. If they could make it to the other side of the ridge line maybe, just maybe they’d live to see old age. Coming up behind Judy, Astrid grabbed her equipment harness and dragged her along with her. Fear of nuclear fire or the jaws of countless bugs adding strength and endurance to her tired muscles. Almost before she realised it, Astrid found herself running over the crest of the ridge. Letting gravity help her she sprinted down the slope dragging Judy behind her for another twenty paces or so.

“DOWN! DOWN!” she yelled as she threw herself to the ground.

Her mind was still working and dredged up long forgotten memories of what she’d been told to do if caught near a nuclear explosion. Lie flat on the ground, hands under your head with your helmet facing in the direction of the expected explosion, open your mouth to equalise the pressure and wait. Whether it’d do any good or not she’d soon find out, but it had to better than putting her head between her knees and kissing her ass goodbye.

No sooner had she got down than there was a bright white flash of light from the other side of the ridge. It was so bright that Astrid could see it even though she had her face pressed into the sand and her eyes where tightly shut. Then came the pressure wave, it washed over her in an instant as it tried to push her through the planet. Then came the heat wave, it wasn’t as bad as she’d expected but she could feel her exposed skin start to burn like a bad sunburn. Finally a great roaring wind appeared to engulf her and the world in general, sand stung her burnt skin as the wind tugged at her equipment and uniform trying to make her relinquish her grip on the ground and hurl her through the air to her death.

After an eternity that must have lasted two or three minutes, Astrid lifted her head out of the sand. In front of her was a great mushroom shaped cloud, around her were smouldering patches of grass and odd bits of still burning bug. On either side of her where three low humps in the sand each with a pair of legs and army boots sticking out of them.

“Whit tae fuck…?” Judy raised her head, sand streaming from off her helmet, she looked around wide eyed as she realised she was still alive.

Getting to her feet, Astrid walked back up the slope until she could see over the crest. Of the habitat there was nothing remaining, just a deep black hole that seemed to glow eerily in the dark. By the light of the stars, she could see heaps of dead bugs blown into drift like piles by the force of the explosion. The bomb must have killed thousands of them, further out she could just make out the bodies of more bugs, this time lying where they’d fallen. In amongst the dead bugs she could see others wandering aimlessly about confused and disoriented.

Knowing from bitter experience that the bugs would soon recover and reorganise, Astrid turned to make her way back to her squad. Turning she found them standing slightly behind her, Lea passed her-her rifle.

“You might want this,” she said as she handed the weapon over.

“Everyone okay?” Astrid asked her own voice sounding far, far away; everyone nodded or said ‘yes’ or just grunted, “Okay lets move out,” Astrid gestured toward where she hoped Sergeant Burden and the rest of the platoon would be waiting.

Tiredly the women turned there backs on the scenes of destruction and walked slowly towards what they hoped would be sanctuary.

0=0=0=0

“Astrid!” Sergeant Burden smiled his face illuminated by a glow stick hanging from his harness, “I thought you’d bought it, I’ve been trying to call you for ages…”

“Nuke musta burnt out my comms,” Astrid explained.

Although he wanted nothing more that to hold her close to him and never let her go, Ian Burden remained the professional NCO, at least for now.

“Report, Corporal,” Burden asked quietly.

“One dead and one missing in action,” Astrid replied flatly.

“Who?” Burden got out his electronic notebook to take the details.

“Private Brandi Wells, killed by the bugs as she covered our escape when the bugs jumped us in the habitat,” Astrid explained.

“I’ll need a detailed report of that,” Burden replied as he noted the change in the platoon’s fighting strength, “maybe get her a medal or something,” Burden noticed the look on Astrid’s face that seemed to ask, a life for a piece of metal? “For her folks,” Burden explained, “something to remember her by.”

“I don’t think they’ll forget her, I won’t, Kandi certainly won’t,” Astrid said.

“Missing in action?” Burden knew it was best to get this stuff over with, don’t dwell on it until later when they’d all be able to say goodbye in their own way.

“Private Sam Rispoli,” Astrid sighed, “just disappeared when the bugs hit us, MIA, she’s probably KIA now. If the bugs didn’t get her the nuke definitely did.”

“I’ll post her as MIA until we can sort things out and do a proper head count,” Burden shrugged, “you never know maybe she got out before…”

“Yeah, whatever…” Astrid slumped to the ground, “…you got a smoke?” Burden shook his head, “Pity.”

“I gotta candy bar,” Burden searched through his pockets and pouches for the elusive confectionary, “or I did have…”

“Doesn’t matter,” using her rifle as a walking stick, Astrid levered herself to her feet once more, “my mum always told me never to take candy from old guys,” she gave a bitter laugh, her mum would probably tell her not to stand too close to a nuke when it went off too. “Anyway I better check on my people…”

“Shuttles started its decent,” Burden called, “it’ll be here in about five minutes…”

“Roger that,” Astrid acknowledged Burden’s call with a wave over her shoulder, “I’ll be there.”

The End.


End file.
